Playing the subway: a hot new ticket

Well, well, well! It’s great to be back (it’s like my very own Saturday Night Live intro!). I’m excited to be back on board with the spinme.com site, and I hope you all can work with me so that Scott, Joe, and I can continue to bring in good, effective techniques, resources, and ideas to help you out. This is not necessarily a “we tell you, so it must be true, and you accept it as such” forum; rather, the “comments” board is there for, well, comments. So, use it, and make it interactive so we can be sure that we are giving you what you want and that you are satisfied with the result. That said, welcome to the first post of my new season on board.

Since I’m new to NYC (just moved a couple of weeks ago), I’m still trying to find my way, learn how everything works, find out what makes the Big Apple go round (pun intended?), etc. Here’s one article that caught my attention, about getting gigs by playing — of all places — underground. After all, everybody uses the subway (or metro, depending on where you’re from), so if you’re playing when, let’s say, a high-level music exec happens to be running to a “Who are we going to sign a $1 million dollar deal with next?” meeting, you may just be in luck.

Sidenote: When I was in Spain recently, I happened to be aboveground, *passing by* the metro, and I heard great music coming from underground, prompting me to go downstairs to see where it was coming from, and I ended up staying to watch the group’s entire set. While I was standing there enjoying the music, someone came around and passed out flyers to advertise for the group’s next show, to be held a few days later. It was a great technique, it seemed, and although I couldn’t make it to the show (and not for the reasons Scott listed!), judging by the crowd that this group had, there’s no way it wasn’t a successful gig.

Try it sometime. You never know who may be passing by.