Don’t Miss Great Opportunities to Attract New Fans
If your music sounds JUST like another act on bill, it will be much harder to stand out and grab the attention of THEIR fans because you’re not doing anything all that different from the band they are already excited about. Think about a radio station--how often does an hour’s worth of music contain nothing but songs that sound the same from bands in the exact same genre? There are always similarities, but a vast majority of people want some variety in the music they listen to.
In the last five years it has become common in many major markets for “rock” radio stations to mix in one or two popular rap songs--or acoustic versions of popular rock songs every hour. This is because the more variety they offer, the stronger their ability to keep attract and retain an audience. People enjoy different styles of music, and more and more the music industry is seeing a lot of fan crossover between artists in diverse, yet compatible genres.
If the style of music you play is especially unusual or out of the ordinary, you should have a pretty easy time attracting attention at most of the shows you play--since it’s not often that more than one ska/polka/metal band plays on the same show. However, if you play a more common style of music such as Emo, Pop Punk, Grunge, Hardcore, etc. then you’ll need to work harder to find shows where you won’t be “just another hardcore band” on a show where every band sounds the same!
You should focus your efforts on booking shows where all of the music is COMPATIBLE, but NOT too similar. Play with bands who have fans that would like your music, not just bands who sound exactly like you. This is why many big tours have COMPATILE, yet diverse line-ups. No one wants to sit through hours of the same thing. So stop focusing so much on what the other acts you play with sound like, and instead focus on playing with COMPATIBLE GENRE acts who have fans that you think would enjoy what you are doing musically.