The Indie Artist Starter Checklist: What You Actually Need to Be Bookable

You've been writing songs for a while. You've got a handful of tracks you're proud of, maybe a few rough recordings, and you've started to think about the obvious next step: playing shows.

So you start researching what it takes to book a gig, and within about fifteen minutes you've hit a wall. Every guide assumes you already have a Spotify for Artists profile, an EPK, a rider, a Bandcamp page, links to your socials, press quotes, a bio, high-res photos, and a distribution service set up.

Nobody starts there. Everybody has to build all of it.

It's worse than that, actually. A lot of the guides you're reading were written three, five, or ten years ago, when indie music discovery ran almost entirely through Spotify profiles, Bandcamp pages, and tidy EPKs. That mattered then. It still matters now — just not as exclusively. The center of gravity has shifted toward live video and short-form social content, and a lot of the old checklists haven't caught up.

The list of things you actually need before you pitch your first venue is still short. The weights have just moved.

This is the updated list, in the order you should tackle it.

Why any of this matters before you pitch a show

When a booker gets an email from an artist they've never heard of, the first thing they do is look you up. They spend maybe thirty seconds deciding whether to keep reading.

A few years ago, they were trying to answer two questions: do these people sound like something my room would book, and can they handle a show without turning it into a headache. Those still matter. But there's a third one now, and in most small rooms it's become the first thing they check: can these people help put people in the room on a Tuesday night.

That third question is why this list has shifted. Guarantees are tighter, bar minimums are real, and bookers are watching for artists whose audience actually shows up — on socials, in ticket counts, and increasingly in live-video view counts. None of it has to be huge. It has to be real.

Every item on this checklist answers one of those three questions. Distribution, your Spotify profile, and your Bandcamp page answer do they sound like my room. Your socials and a live clip answer can they help fill the room. Your EPK and rider answer can they handle the show. None of it is busywork — it's what venues look at when they decide whether to reply.

The setup sequence, in order

Some things unlock others — you can't claim a Spotify for Artists profile before your music is on Spotify, and you can't put your music on Spotify without a distribution service. Tackle these in sequence and each step makes the next one easier.

Each of these is straightforward on its own. Together they take a weekend or two of real focus.

1. Get your music distributed

Before your music exists on Spotify, Apple Music, or any other streaming platform, you need a distribution service. These are the companies that deliver your tracks to all the streaming services at once.

The main options are DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, and Amuse. They differ on pricing model — some charge per release, some charge annually, some take a revenue share. For your first release it honestly doesn't matter much which you pick; pick one that matches your release frequency and budget and move on.

What matters is that you have a distribution service at all. Without one, you don't exist on streaming. Without streaming, every other step on this list is harder.

2. Claim your Spotify for Artists profile

Once your music is live on Spotify, you can claim your artist profile through Spotify for Artists. This is different from a regular Spotify account — it's the backend that lets you manage how your profile looks to listeners and see data about who's playing your music.

First, it lets you control your bio, photo, and the tracks you highlight. An unclaimed profile looks generic and slightly abandoned. A claimed one signals you're an active artist.

Second, it unlocks listener data — including which cities your listeners are in. When you eventually start thinking about where to tour, that data is the foundation of the answer. You want it building up from day one, not the day you decide to book your first out-of-town show.

Apple Music has a similar program (Apple Music for Artists). Worth claiming too while you're in setup mode.

3. Set up a Bandcamp page

For a long time, Bandcamp was the answer here — the default "real musician" profile every guide told you to build. It's had a turbulent few years (the Epic Games acquisition in 2022, the sale to Songtradr in 2023, the resulting layoffs and uncertainty), and some artists have drifted to alternatives. Worth knowing if you've been reading older guides and wondering whether it still applies.

It does, with a small asterisk. Bandcamp is still where a lot of the music industry — other artists, bookers, small labels — tends to check you out in context. Bandcamp Fridays still happen. Fans still buy. The monthly average still outpaces any streaming payout by a wide margin.

What's changed is the weight. Bandcamp isn't the only profile that matters anymore; it's one of several. Set one up, do it well, but don't feel obligated to pour weeks into it.

Set it up with care. Good cover art, a short bio, location, tags that actually describe your sound, and links to everywhere else you exist. Upload your music even if it's also on streaming — the redundancy helps, and Bandcamp's revenue share is far better than any streaming platform if anyone ever buys something.

4. Pick one social and actually use it

Older guides will tell you that socials are a nice-to-have — "make sure your profiles are linked and don't worry too much about posting." That was reasonable advice five years ago. It's not anymore.

For small venues in 2026, a booker looking at your Instagram or TikTok is asking a specific question: if I give these people a slot, can they bring anyone. They're not counting followers — a few hundred engaged people beats five thousand dormant ones every time. They're checking whether anything is happening on the account. Recent posts. Replies. Video that looks like it was made this year. Any sign the artist is active and the audience is awake.

You do not need to become a content machine. You do need one platform you post on consistently. Instagram is still the default for most small-venue bookers. TikTok matters more if you're trying to reach new listeners directly. YouTube Shorts has quietly become one of the best short-form engines for musicians — the algorithm has been kind to music since about 2024, and Shorts views tend to convert into actual long-form listens at a better rate than TikTok does. Pick the one you'll actually use and ignore the others. Two quiet accounts are worse than one alive one.

Whatever you pick, make sure it's easy to find from everywhere else. Linked from your Spotify for Artists profile, your Bandcamp page, and your EPK. No dead ends.

5. Get one decent live clip

This is the item that didn't appear on starter checklists ten years ago and barely appeared five years ago. It's now arguably the single most important artifact you can make before pitching shows.

A "live clip" is a short video — thirty seconds to a couple of minutes — of you actually playing. Not a music video. Not a studio session cut to look like a performance. You, in a room, playing. It answers the one question a studio recording can't: can these people hold a room.

Phone footage is fine. That's not a fallback — it's the current expectation. A clip shot on a friend's iPhone from the back of a rehearsal space, with decent audio, outperforms an expensive-looking production every time because it reads as real. Bookers have become very good at distinguishing a live performer from a studio artist pretending to be one. Fight that instinct at your own risk.

If you don't have a live gig yet, you have options. A rehearsal-space one-song shoot. An open mic with someone propped up in the back with a phone. A small house show. A borrowed venue during off-hours. Any of these produces a usable clip.

One clip, well-placed, does a lot of work. It goes on your EPK, on your socials as a pinned post or reel, and into your first outreach email as a link. You don't need ten. You need one.

6. Build a basic EPK

An EPK — Electronic Press Kit — is a single page where a booker can find everything about you in one place. Older guides sometimes describe EPKs as multi-page PDFs with press logos, extensive bios, tour-date blocks, and studio-quality photos. That format still exists at higher levels of the industry. At the small-venue level, it has been replaced by something much simpler.

A basic EPK has: a short bio (two to three paragraphs max), a recent photo (band photo, not a bathroom selfie), links to your music on streaming and Bandcamp, the live clip you shot in the previous step, any show history or press if you have it, and a contact email. That's it.

Where to host it doesn't matter much. Your own simple website works. A Bandcamp page works. A well-organized Notion page works. For many artists pitching smaller rooms, a well-tended link-in-bio page (Linktree, Beacons, or similar) doubles as the EPK — it merges the social presence with the booking info in one tap, and bookers have gotten used to treating it as the landing page. A PDF works in a pinch. What matters is that when a booker says "send me your EPK," you have a link you can send in ten seconds.

7. Write a simple technical rider

A technical rider is the document that tells a venue what you need to play a show. It can look intimidating the first time you see one. For an indie artist, it doesn't have to be.

A one-page rider that covers band size, what you need the venue to provide (PA system, monitors, number of mic inputs, any specific channels for your setup), and what you bring yourselves (instruments, amps, pedals, etc.) is plenty. You can get fancier later. You'll need something the first time a venue asks how load-in will work — which happens earlier than you think.

The rider does one more thing: it makes you look like you've done this before. A band that hands a venue a clean, specific rider is signaling they've thought through their show and won't be a surprise problem on the night.

What's deliberately not on this list

Some things you'll see on other indie artist guides aren't here. Not because they don't matter ever, but because they don't matter yet.

1. 1
   A custom website Nice to have, not required. Your Bandcamp page and a simple Linktree-style landing can cover it until you have enough content to justify a full site.
2. 2
   A polished music video Different animal from the live clip in step five. A produced narrative music video is great when you have the budget and story, but it's not what bookers are trying to see. They want the rehearsal-space phone clip, not the cinematic short film.
3. 3
   Going viral This one's newer on the "don't worry about it yet" list. A lot of artists getting started now pour months into chasing a TikTok hit before booking a single show. A viral moment can accelerate a career, but it won't book a first gig — and local bookers actively distrust artists who look like a social experiment without any live footing. Build the foundation first; the algorithm is not your manager.
4. 4
   Press quotes You don't have these yet because you haven't played shows yet. That's fine. They'll show up naturally as you play and local outlets start writing about you. Don't chase them prematurely.
5. 5
   A manager, booking agent, or label None of these are for artists starting out. They come later, when there's something for them to work with. Trying to get a booking agent before you have a handful of shows under your belt is backwards.
6. 6
   An LLC or business structure Worth it eventually. Not worth the headache on day one. You can play your first fifty shows as a sole proprietor without much friction.

The industry is full of things that feel like prerequisites but are actually consequences of playing shows. Play the shows first. The rest follows.

When you're ready to pitch your first venue

Once the seven items are in place, you're ready. Not ready in the sense that everything is perfect — ready in the sense that when a booker looks you up, they'll see a real artist with real music, real evidence you can play a room, and a real setup.

From there the work shifts. It's about finding the right venues, writing good outreach, and tracking all of it so nothing falls through the cracks.

Different problem, different tools. But it's the problem you get to have once the foundation is in place.

Start with step one. The rest will follow.

The most common mistake at this stage isn't choosing the wrong distribution service or building a subpar EPK. It's trying to do everything at once, getting overwhelmed, and doing nothing.

Pick the first thing — distribution — and do it this week. Spotify for Artists and Bandcamp can happen in the weeks after while you wait for your music to go live. Picking a social and posting on it is something you can start immediately. Block a weekend to shoot the live clip — it's the highest-leverage afternoon on this whole list. The EPK and rider can be built in an afternoon each.

In a month, you'll have everything you need to start pitching shows.

Hero photo by Anand Suthar on Unsplash.