To teach yourself how to sell your music online, you’ve done plenty of homework. But even after learning all the new age methods of making it big, you know you can’t ignore the old ways. You go with the tried-and-true means of exposure: you play live.

Music festivals, in particular, are a fantastic opportunity to heighten your popularity. When you’re booked to play at a music festival, you’re able to ride the coattails of more popular bands all the way to the bank if the festival sells out.

But have you ever wanted to pull back the curtain and see where all that money is going? These mammoth, awe-inspiring, elaborate parties often held in rural towns– how do they make out in the end?

Check out these statistics on the local economic impact of music festivals on their surrounding towns:

• Burning Man estimates that its participants spent over $15 million in Northern Nevada in 2011.
• Bonnaroo, named the best music festival of the year by Rolling Stone in 2008, is held annually in Manchester, TN. According to Coffee County Mayor David Pennington, the festival has “an economic impact of $20 million a year.” In fact, “Bonnaroo has generated over $220 million in Coffee County over the last 11 years,” Pennington said in 2012.
• Ultra Music Festival, the annual EDM extravaganza in Florida, conducted a study in October to examine its impact on the local economy. The study revealed festival players and fans have pumped $40 million into the local Miami economy every year since its inception, totally $79 million cumulatively.
• Not to be outdone, 2011’s Coachella music festival in Indio, CA, brought $254.4 million to the surrounding area. Indio itself saw the largest impact, collecting about $90 million in spending and $1.5 million in tax revenue.

“I don’t know how to sell my music online!” you once thought. Not, you know at least one surefire way to become a sensation: play at a music festival! The crowds (and their wallets) are colossal. And, in the meantime, post your songs to SongCast!