2011 - The Year In Review

I think we did really well in 2011. Attendance overall was up at our shows, and most importantly, so were our totals per show. We averaged $628.43 per show last year, an increase of approximately $221 from 2010's average of $407. This could just be dumb luck, or it could be attributed to the fact that we had more all day shows last year, with more bands playing most of our shows than we've typically had in the past - more bands, more people, more money. Then again some of the shows with less bands and a smaller audience actually did really well due to donations, so who knows.

One thing I know for sure is that I need to change one key element of the way I plan these shows - there is WAAAAYYYYYY too much time being spent on getting a date booked and getting the lineup together. It really shouldn't take a lot of time to get those things done, and yet it does. Consequently I spend most of my time in the planning stages and just a little time at the last minute actually promoting the show. Promotion is hard enough as it is with really no money with which to promote. Social media seems to be all the rage, but it's really lacking in promotional effectiveness - bottom line, if people aren't interested in coming to the show, they're not going to, no matter how much you blitz it online. And trying to hone in on people you think might be interested might actually work if the aforementioned social media sites didn't go out of their way to make it difficult for you. That said, there are ways to garner interest in shows but time is needed to get it done, so that will be my new tact with this year's shows - less time trudging through the planning stages and more time pushing the product. Too much sitting around on my part waiting for things - time to move.

It also occurs to me that regardless of what it is, I find that after 6 or 7 years of something, I ALWAYS feel like I need to do something else. In this case, I'm definitely getting that feeling. We will continue to do benefit shows for the many worthy shelters out there, but it's high time that we take Stop The Bleeding to the next level - I feel that very strongly with every fiber of my being. I'm not going to say much beyond that right now, but it's time to make a major move if we're ever to truly do something about homelessness.