Cover Band Confidential's Podcast (Music Business, Gigging Tips & Making Money as a Musician)

How to know when it's time to confront one of your people about their performance, their impact on your brand, or any other reason. If you're going to be the band leader, that means you have to be be the grown-up. Here's our thoughts on how to deal with that!

We all experience it--the inevitable negative review, Internet hater, or snarky jealous musician. How do you handle it? Go into a spiral? Brush off your shoulder? Take the feedback and improve? This episode with special guest Mike Schulte (who's gotten some Internet hate in his time) talk about what that feels like and what to do with it. Also Disney, Halloween, and RIP Norm MacDonald.

We're putting our foot down. If you're a musician there are a few things you just have to stop doing. And in this episode we will tell you them. Also Adam preps karaoke and Dan preps Disney. All around a preppy, prohibit-y episode.

No matter how you slice it, having a cover band means dealing with personnel. Tonight Adam and Dan discuss their current challenges, opportunities, and complexities of working with that Most Dangerous Game: Man. (And women. theoretically. But statistically: man.)

The boys are starting to get their feet back under them, gig-wise, and exploring these newfangled 10 year old things that the pandemic brought front and center: QR Codes. Adam's talked about them. Dan's experimented with them. Today's ep is a deep dive into how they can be used to get your content in front of audience members. Also: A rubber duck, a weird crackle, a fishing child, and maybe they'r...

We're a LITTLE unfocused in this episode, friends. We'll be the first to admit it. Adam covers the first outing of his new project, Dan talks about his guitar needing to get to the shop and how he's getting around since then, we discuss band names and branding, and various other short topics.

Tonight we're joined by Adam's fine co-frontperson (and co-spousal-unit) Amber! The topic of setlist flow and interstitial mid-show chat came up on Facebook, and she had Things to Say! So we brought 'er on to say them. Minor topics include how to get through a show in the face of catastrophic equipment failure, doggy "day care", and whether silent rehearsals really are.

How do you become a stage-presence monster if your whole gigging life has been about focusing on quality playing? Is it even worth it? How can you make the trip from here to there? These are the questions Adam and Dan focus on this week. Also PLEASE support Steve Witschel who remains hospitalized with Covid-19. He's meant a lot to all of us, and even though his immediate outlook is improving, it l...

After a general gigging update (and a VERY mysterious tease about a VERY mysterious Zoom call), we get right down to it: There's a magic word. If you know it's magic, and LIVE like it's magic, it'll transform everything about your band and music career, relationships, career, and life in general. So listen up.

Welcome to Cover Band Confi-DAN-tial! Adam's at the beach, and Dan's just got a couple thoughts to drop.  First: Momentum. Getting the proverbial ball rolling, and then what to do with it once it is. Second: From a listener question, should your marketing and market approach target venues? Should your social content and ad spend target restaurant owners and other kinds of bookers? (And is Dan actu...

In this fine episode, Dan drops some thoughts about how to cancel a gig and leave everyone happy (by being a solution, not a problem). Then Adam shares how his cucumber-cool approach may have created an awesome new relationship and set of opportunities (by being a solution, not a problem). Short version of this episode: read the title. This episode's outro bumper is brought to us by show patron Ad...

This week Adam shares what it was like when his band got together for the first time in a year and a half (spoilers: there's work to do). Then Dan talks about his strategy for building his email list, and the simple trick that's grown his list by 25% in the last two weeks. So should you!

The world is opening up, and it feels like the demand for live entertainment has never been higher! There are two new things to keep in mind: The effort to maintain and nurture and grow relationships and opportunities, and the desire to expand into this new environment wisely and steadily and with an eye on work/life balance.  Today we talk about both of those things, along with, of course, Velvet...

Listener Russ asks a keen question on band rehearsal schedules and almost certainly gets more answer than he was hoping for. All you need to know to have the basics of your rehearsal schedule work for your group.

This week's episode is an interview with Eric Hogan. Eric is a veteran of the cover band world currently portraying Kurt Cobain in Nevermind: An Atlanta-based tribute band for Nirvana. In our conversation we discuss how he came to starting the group, how his band has been able to transition from bars to large venues in a short period, and what it takes to embody a legend. Follow Nevermind on Insta...

The influx of work is causing us to feel anew the logistical challenges and details of what it takes to do what we do. We can either complain about that, or be grateful that we're now in a place where we get to have those problems again! Choose! Support us at https://patreon.com/coverbandconfidential

Things are definitely starting to hit some velocity out there. This episode we deal with that; what it looks like to get our show back up to speed. https://patreon.com/coverbandconfidential for bonus content and insider chat!

The tipping point seems to have been hit, friends. Dan shares about his experience getting his standing weekly acoustic events back on their feet and playing a glorious First Gig. Adam shares about the opportunities that have been coming his way, some great, some not so much. Consider supporting us on Patreon! You get goodies, including membership in our back-channel Slack! https://patreon.com/cov...

A good look at what "coming back" is going to take--in some ways it's fast and easy, and in others there's a lot of work ahead. Also the updates on our attempts to engage more deeply with the podcast audience. Please check out our revised Patreon at http://patreon.com/coverbandconfidential Also please call and leave a message (like Billy Preston Esq. who is 100% not Mike Schulte did). 404-491-0910

With the relaunch of our Patreon we have started offering all of our youtube content as audio for our $20 patrons. This is the audio from a video we did about using QR codes and a linktree-style page for your band or solo gigs to increase engagement by offering ways to request songs and do cashless tipping. If this is something you're interested in please subscribe to our Youtube channel or sign u...

Alex Auxier is the former Artist Relations manager for Orange Amps. These days he consults for Victory Amps and Origin Effects. On this episode he walks us through how gear endorsements work, and gives us a big-ol look into the world of music gear marketing!

This week Adam flies solo to discuss what the future of Cover Band Confidential may look like, and how YOU can help choose ways to get more out of this show! Thank you so much for tuning in! If you want to help us be sure to like, subscribe and share us with your friends! Follow us on social media Facebook.com/coverbandconfidential Instagram @coverbandconfidential Twitter @coverbandconfid Follow o...

DON'T get trapped in a Chinese boy band reality show. DO take feedback well! That's what this episode is all about--how to get feedback, how to orient your emotions to take it properly, and what to do with it when you've got it.

A trio of topics to talk about today. First: Requests. How to handle them, how to solicit them, and maybe an online tool to do it in? Second: Impressive vs Good. Does what you intend to deliver to an audience matter? (No. No it doesn't.) Third: Listener question. Is this "you have to sell tables thing" a good deal? https://linktr.ee/coverbandconfidential

To celebrate our century-and-a-half, we bring you a crossover episode with Steve Witchell and Tony B from the OTHER CBC: Cover Band Central! Check it as the four of us talk about how all this came to be, what the current world means for us in our various parts of the country, and how to hose down singers with fire extinguishers for fun and profit.