The A3C Festival & Conference brings in thousands of artists, producers, brands, and tastemakers of all kinds. It's a great place to connect with others in the music industry and bring visibility to your brand and movement. But your experience will only be as beneficial as you make it.
As an indie artist, attending A3C is an investment. From buying your passes to securing your hotel and flight accommodations, you definitely want to make sure that you're making the most out of your trip.
Here's a few tips to make sure you bring your "A" game.
- Don't Spend All of Your Time at showcases - While it's always amazing to meet your favorite celebs, don't forget to take advantage of all of the other resources that the A3C Festival provides to help you along in your music career. For instance, The Creator Complex is a revolutionary facility to connect artists and producers with creative professionals to create valuable digital assets... for free! Artists and producers will be able to get a headshot, master music, make beats, collaborate with producers/artists, record music, write a bio, develop a website, design a logo and record a podcast. This is definitely something that you should be a part of!
- Bring Merch (to Sell and to Give Away) - Everyone loves a free t-shirt and many will also purchase your merch as a way to support your movement. Use your merch as a promo tool when networking with industry professionals and also make sure to set up a merch table at your performance so that you can make back some of the money that you invested into your trip to A3C.
- Make Sure Your Marketing Materials Have Your Contact Info - This one might seem obvious to you however you would be surprised at how many artists pass out CDs with handwritten titles on them and no contact info. If you’re going to pass out your music, make sure that your contact info is printed on the cd itself as well as the case. Which leads right into my next point...
- Introduce Yourself Before You Hand Someone Your Mixtape. While A3C can be an awesome way to get the word out there about your music and movement, in order for it to be effective, you must make a memorable impression among those you meet. I attended the festival in 2015 when I was on the Sonicbids panel and there were at least 5 occasions where someone would immediately try to hand me a CD before they even told me their name. So a big tip for this years festival is, don't shove your music down people's throats. instead, focus on making a memorable first impression. Get to know people, have conversations, and most importantly, make sure that you've connected with the person in some way before leaving the conversation (make sure you're following each other on twitter or instagram that way you can stay in touch).
Have anymore tips? Tweet us yours @A3C!
