Be the Gig: Darryl Williams on Getting Radio Play as an Independent Artist (Episode 32)

Make Music Your Business.

If you have been to a smooth jazz show, you have probably seen Darryl Williams holding down the low end. He has been a sideman with players like Boney James, Michael Lington and Jeff Lorber. Then he stepped into the spotlight with his own album, Here to Stay, and started topping the smooth jazz charts.

Nomad caught up with him over a meal in Vegas after they played a Michael Lington gig together, so forgive the background noise. In Episode 32 of The Career Musician, Darryl breaks down how an independent artist gets radio play, and the sideman rules that got him there.

Build your own radio campaign

Darryl's album is mostly instrumental, and he said the biggest target for instrumental music was satellite radio. So he put together the team a label used to hire: a radio promotion company, a publicist who got him into Bass Player magazine, and advertising with a smooth jazz network and smooth jazz websites.

How did he figure out the formula? He watched people who were successful and asked them how they did it. His first record came out in 2007 and he did radio promotion only. He had minimal success, though it did land songs on satellite radio, the Weather Channel and Music Choice. This time he went wider.

His view is that you don't really need a record company. Social media makes it a fairly level playing field, if you put in the time.

"I would say to be more focused on fans of music rather than musicians."

Darryl Williams, 3:39

Musicians want altered chords and burning solos, and a lot of them don't want to pay for music. Nomad's line: that's like trying to sell bricks to a mason.

It starts with the song

Did the campaign put him on top? Yes, but the song came first.

"At the end of the day, you have to have a good song."

Darryl Williams, 6:18

He knows people who spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on promotion and didn't gain any ground. Promotion amplifies a great song. It can't replace one.

Turn airplay into gigs

Everybody asks the same thing: how do you turn the radio and PR into actual gigs? Darryl's answers were all about people.

First, the fans. After a show he always hangs out and talks with the people he knows from Facebook, Instagram, the cruise and the festivals, because they are the ones who support you. Everything you do is an audition, and that includes the hang after the set.

Second, be persistent with promoters. Make the calls and stay in people's ears, especially when you have a song on the charts, but don't email them every single day. He watched a friend work his first couple of years without an agent, getting gigs all over the country and in Europe by calling promoters directly.

Third, have discernment. You meet promoters at festivals while you are working for another artist. Know who you are working for, and know when you would be overstepping.

And with radio, when a DJ or program director asks for artist drops, always follow up. Record them and send them in. It builds a reciprocal relationship. As Nomad put it, it's not only who you know, but who knows you. Work begets work.

Be the gig

Darryl's sideman rules start with knowing what the artist wants. Learn the music. Play what's on the record or the live recording first, and play just enough unless they ask for more or less.

Then be early. If rehearsal is at ten, he is set up with his fingers on the bass well before, then he walks away and gets coffee. Traffic is never an excuse. He lives in Temecula and gets to LA sessions an hour early, while someone from across town shows up late blaming traffic.

Why does it matter so much? Because at a certain point, everybody can play. In LA you can find five hundred players who could do the gig. Don't give anybody a reason to go looking. That is Reliability beats virtuosity.

"You have to be the gig, man. That's what it comes down to. Know what it is you're doing and be the gig."

Darryl Williams, 21:54

The takeaway

Write the great song first. Then build the team and the relationships that carry it. Talk to the fans, follow up with the DJs, and keep calling the promoters with respect. On every sideman gig, show up early and be the gig. If you're ready to land more of those calls, start with the free Get the Gig guide, and hear Darryl's music at darrylwilliamsmusic.com.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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