Touring Resources

Whether you’re playing in a venue with a capacity of ten people or ten thousand people, you’ll need to promote your show to get an audience through the door. Nailing your gig promotion isn’t just useful for selling tickets; it can attract new fans to your music and help you announce your style as an artist – particularly when you’re starting out.

We caught up with promoters Matthew Crawley of Strange News Touring and Zac Arnold of Naked PR and record label Sunreturn to get some tips and advice for a great promo run.

Planning in advance

As soon as you start planning a gig, you should be considering how you’re going to spread the word about it. Matthew Crawley’s best tip is the more lead-in time you give yourself for promoting a show, the better. “I would say give yourself at least a couple of months to think about promotion”.

Preparing your EPK

One of the first things you can do to get ready is to sort out your promotional assets. This means pulling together a great EPK (electronic press kit) with a press release, photos of your band, tour/gig posters and links to your music and ticketing platform. Think about the story you’re trying to communicate with your promotional materials. Who is going to see it, where will they see it, and what is it going to tell them about your music and upcoming event?

Venues

Once all your base promotional material is ready, you can start thinking about what platforms you could explore for advertising your show. The best place to begin is with the spaces and communities you already have access to. Crawley suggests starting with the gig venue. “Most venues will be helpful if they can, and even more helpful if you communicate with them. Ask them what works best for promotion”. Venues host hundreds of shows each year and will have their own systems for getting the word out about gigs to their networks and communities.

Social Media

Social media is one of the most accessible avenues for self-promotion. Zac Arnold says, “I’d recommend utilising whatever social media you enjoy using. When you think you’re posting too much, it probably means you’re doing just enough”. Sponsored posts have also become common practice for show promotion. Crawley says spending a bit of money on a sponsored post can really be worth it. “If you do it right, it does actually work, and it can be hard to get cut through without it. If you spend a little money on promotion, you can get more out of your gig”.

Offline Promotion

Spending money on offline promotion can also be worthwhile. Old-school postering is something Crawley does when promoting shows. “Pay somebody to put up posters, or print some posters and do it yourself. Go to local cafes and restaurants and ask if you can leave some posters there”. Postering is an easy and cheap way to increase visibility for your show and your music. A good poster in the right place can catch the attention of people you may not have reached otherwise.

Gig Guides

In more traditional media spaces, there are plenty of avenues for getting the word out about a show you’re playing. “Adding your shows to gig guides is great”, says Arnold. Platforms like UnderTheRadar, Eventfinda, Muzic.nz, the Student Radio Network and others have gig listings that you can submit your show to and often run editorial pieces on interesting upcoming events.

Magazines and Community Radio

Online and print magazines will often write about exciting shows tied to music releases. Have a look at who is writing about music, and get in contact with those journalists and editors. Consider the different lead times for different platforms; print magazines will generally organise their editorial content weeks to months in advance of it going to print, so you’ll want to contact them as early as you can with your requests for coverage. Don’t be disheartened if they can’t accommodate your request; making that connection may lead to support in the future.

Community radio, like the Student Radio Network, Iwi Radio and Community Access Radio stations, are also great places to get yourself in front of ears that might not be familiar with your music. Contact the station’s programming team to see if they are interested in interviewing you, playing your music or even offering you space to play live-to-air. You could even spend some money on running an ad campaign with them. Local radio reaches audiences you might not already know and is a great way to grow your fanbase. When you’re approaching print media or radio to promote your show, your well-crafted EPK will be invaluable. A strong press release with captivating imagery and easy access to your music is a great calling card when you’re reaching out to journalists and media who don’t yet know who you are.

Word of Mouth

One of the most effective and often overlooked ways of getting folks along to a show is through word of mouth. Who doesn’t love getting a great recommendation about music from a friend? Asking your friends and whānau to come along to the gig – and to bring people with them – is an easy and organic way to grow an engaged audience. Build up a mailing list, Discord channel or Substack that connects you with people who care about your music. Zac Arnold utilises digital community spaces to help promote shows. “I’ve just started messaging Sunreturn’s Bandcamp followers through the community tab – you can use the Audience Setting to create a radius around a specific city”. Asking your support band to help spread the word to their fans is also a great way of creating real-world relationships with your music.

Remember, promoting your show doesn’t have to be a chore. As Arnold points out, it’s okay to “play with the format – there are no rules”. Being imaginative with your promotion can make the process fun, effective and help get people along to hear your music. 

Matthew Crawley has been promoting shows with his company Strange News Touring since 2005. Crawley has promoted over 200 shows featuring international artists and has run thousands of local shows in his 20-year career.

Zac Arnold is the Creative Director at Naked PR and the Founder/Manager of the independent music label Sunreturn. Arnold has worked on promotion for live music events like NZ Psych Fest, Sunreturn’s Primer Series, and Flying Out’s monthly club night, which would go on to become The Others Way.

Check out the documents below to access more touring resources, including our 2025 May Book focused on live music and touring!