Houston bands receive tools for success at Caroline Collective's Bandcamp

Insert Name Here, one of the Houston bands in attendance
at Caroline Collective's Bandcamp booking party.

Bandcamp is an ongoing series of free workshops offered by Caroline Collective to provide Houston musicians with the tools they need to be successful. These workshops, along with other events, are intended to bring together those involved in all aspects of Houston’s music scene in order to build a stronger, more successful, music community.

On Sunday, Caroline Collective cofounder Matthew Wettergreen hosted a Bandcamp booking party centered around his free ebook, ‘Guide To Booking Your Band In Texas’. Local musicians participating in the workshop included members of I-45, Wayside Drive, Insert Name Here, Golden Cities, Prairie Cadets, Winter Wallace, Glasnost and others. The free ebook offers a wealth of information including extensive venue listings for markets within a 400 mile radius of Houston. To help with the process, there are also basic scripts for contacting venues by phone and email.

Wettergreen began with an overview of the ebook taking everyone step by step through the booking process and stressed the importance of playing live shows in other markets. Members of I-45, Golden Cities and Glasnost then offered advice based on their past experience booking their own tours. For the other bands in attendance, they offered valuable first hand information.

When the discussion ended, the real work began. Bands with an existing press kit went online and, using the steps discussed, began contacting venues to book shows. At the previous Bandcamp booking party in July of last year, Liquid Kitchen had successfully booked two shows within 72 hours and Insert Name Here booked a show later that week using the scripts and information provided. Wettergreen is hoping for similar success stories from Sunday’s event.

The Bandcamp series of events at Caroline Collective are held on the first Sunday of every month (with some exceptions). For the topic of the next Bandcamp workshop along with the exact time and date, visit the Caroline Collective website where you can choose email, Twitter or RSS to receive updates. Caroline Collective is conveniently located at 4820 Caroline, just blocks from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

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