Why DIY Shows Keep the Scene Alive
January 31, 2025
DIY Merch Hack: Screen-Printed Heat Transfers for Bands on a Budget
February 5, 2025
Paper vs. Digital: The Best of Both Worlds
The Case for Both, Why You Shouldn’t Ditch Paper Flyers for Social Media
It’s 2025, and most bands rely on Instagram stories, Facebook events, and TikTok clips to promote their shows. And yeah, digital promo is important—it’s fast, easy, and can reach way beyond your local scene. But if you think paper flyers are dead, think again.
The same posters and handbills that got you into shows when you were younger? They still work. In fact, they might work better now because so few people actually put in the effort anymore. If you’re serious about packing out your gigs, you need both digital and physical promo. Here’s why.
Digital Flyers:
Quick, Easy, and Wide-Reaching
Pros:
✅ Instant Promotion: Post a flyer online, and boom—your whole following sees it (or at least, whoever the algorithm blesses that day).
✅ Free & Fast: No printing costs, no late-night Kinko’s runs—just upload and share.
✅ Easy to Update: Time change? New opener? Fix it in seconds.
✅ Interactive: Link to tickets, add RSVP options, or run a contest to boost engagement.
💀 Cons:
❌ Social Media Overload: Everyone is constantly scrolling past flyers. Your show announcement is fighting for attention against memes, cat videos, and viral drama.
❌ Algorithm Struggles: If the platform doesn’t push your post, your flyer might not reach the right people.
❌ Zero Physical Presence: Once someone closes their phone, they forget about it. No physical reminder means out of sight, out of mind.
Paper Flyers:
Still Punk, Still Effective
Pros:
✅ Tangible & Memorable: A flyer in someone’s hand or taped to a venue wall is harder to ignore than an Instagram post they scrolled past.
✅ Shows You’re Serious: A band actually putting in the work to print and distribute flyers? That stands out.
✅ Perfect for Targeting the Right Crowd: Hanging flyers at tattoo shops, music stores, and dive bars puts them exactly where your audience already is.
✅ Networking Goldmine: Handing out flyers in person lets you connect directly with people, meet potential fans, and even score random hookups (free food? discount tattoos? who knows!).
💀 Cons:
❌ Takes Time & Effort: Cutting out stacks of flyers and hitting the streets isn’t as easy as pressing ‘post.’
❌ Printing Costs: Even cheap black-and-white copies add up, especially for broke bands.
❌ No Instant Engagement: Unlike digital, people can’t ‘like’ or share a paper flyer (but they can take a pic and post it, which is the next best thing).
💡 The Best Strategy? Do Both.
If you want to actually promote your show instead of just hoping people see it, you need to go all in. Here’s how:
Make a Digital Flyer That Doesn’t Suck
Print Low-Budget Flyers (They Work Just Fine!)
Where to Drop Flyers & Posters
Hand Flyers Out at Shows
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Stay Confident in the Grind.
Yeah, social media is necessary—but don’t let digital flyers be your only promo tool. The work you put in with physical flyers shows you care about your scene, and that makes people care about you.
So print those black-and-white flyers. Cut them out. Hit the streets. Because real fans aren’t just scrolling—they’re out living music, just like you.
Want to see this in action? Check out Riot Scene’s next show and grab a flyer. 🤘
