How can my band get a little bit of a bigger following?

You are asking how can your band get a bigger following, but the question you actually want answered is "what can my band do to appeal to record labels".

These both are valid questions that nearly all bands ask themselves at least once in their lifespan.

You should in turn ask both these questions on this website, as the more diverse the responses, the more likely it is you will find something that you suit.

I shall give you some tips and advice for gaining momentum and a bigger following, but from what it sounds like you are on the right track.

You don't need to pay for advertising. Find good bookers and promoters in your area, and play cheap for them, and they will give you great "FREE" advertising.

If you have exhausted your current area, you will want to play a few shows out of town. Try and find reputable contacts, and play the shows for FREE.

Get some good quality recordings of your music. Send these out to college, local and regional radio stations, as well as press and publications.

The cost of all of these things, may very well equal that of an advertising firm, but as you can see, you will get a lot more for your buck.

Personally, having been in several bands, and explored all the advertising routes, web ads, magazine ads, the only thing that ever really worked for those bands was getting out and playing gigs and creating buzz that way. It's slow to start with but will build the buzz and get more people coming to future shows.

Facebook likes are good for promoting shows, music etc and encouraging your current fan base to help you expand yours by spreading the word will work much better than an expensive ad on the side of some website which most people probably won't take in. Think about how many ads on the sides of websites or in the back of music mags that you actually read yourself.

As far as likes go on facebook I don't think they really mean that much to record execs from what I can tell because bands I know have 10,000+ likes, mainly from a short term promotion by a large alternative clothing company, and yet if you ask most people in our area, no one has heard of them and if they have don't like them, because they play sporadic gigs and also treat everyone else in the area as if we're below them. Being nice to people in the music industry will get you places. Make contacts with other bands, venues. If you're nice to a venue owner they might give you the opening slot for a large band, instead of putting you on as the opener on a night where there are more people on stage than in the crowd.

The best thing to do in my experience is get out there, get gigging and expand (slowly, there's no point playing shows all over the place) the towns and cities you're playing in, get people talking about you and filling up the shows. And be nice to people, especially the venue owners, sound guys (because you won't get invited back if you're an ar-se to the sound guy) and talk to other bands, I've ended up getting a lot of gigs by being nice and talking to people.

Top of my record for that could be Mike Oldfield Some of his exceptional albums to suit that description are {chronologically} :~ Tubular Bells Hergest Ridge Ommadawn Incantations Platinum QE2 Amarok Tubular Bells II Voyager Tubular Bells III Guitars Music of the Spheres