Acquiring and organising shows for your band can be a time consuming and frustrating experience. You have to play live and you need to have to reach as lots of existing and new fans as attainable. But, with all the indications that the live music company will continue to grow (worldwide concert ticket sales had been $four.4bn in 2009, up 17% from 2008), essentially obtaining those gigs can be challenging. Once you are offered a show by a promoter you nonetheless need to agree a payment and sort out a contract.
A music agent is a live music small business professional who will obtain you paid gigs and other live engagements. These gigs are identified as bookings, hence the term booking agent. (It is generally accepted that a talent agent is any agent who can acquire function for their client - film, Television, book writing for instance. A talent agent who concentrates on finding gigs and tours for their client is a booking agent [Waddel, Barnet, & Berry, 2007]. This article shall deal with booking agents.)
The booking agent does not truly put on shows. An agent acts as an intermediary in between the thousands of artists and the limited worldwide body of promoters of concert venues, festival, clubs and colleges. [Hopewell & Hanlon, 2003]
The function of the booking agent An individual music agent usually woks as component of bigger agencies comprised of a number of agents. The agents are responsible for their own revenues and use the agency's infrastructure (such as telephone, ISP, legal and accountancy services) to aid run their own "micro-small business" within the overall framework of the agency. The agency then takes a cut of the agent's revenue to pay for these services and to (hopefully) create a profit. The most well identified agencies are Inventive Arts Agency (CAA), William Morris Agency (WMA), Artists Group International, Montery Peninsula Artists, The Agency Group, Solo, X-Ray Touring and International Talent Booking (ITB).
A music agent makes capital by taking a percentage of the artist's gross income for a performance. If you play a show for $1000 then the agent will take $100 of that as their percentage. You need to not pay your agent funds commissions on anything other than what you earn from gigs and tours.
Music agents are regulated in the US by the major entertainment unions, AFM, AFTRA, SAG & Equity who have capped the agent's percentage to 10% of the artist's gross fee for every show. (AFM in reality enables up to 20% for 1-off appearances.) In the UK there is no such regulation but 10% of the gross fee seems to be the norm.
Moreover, if an agent makes a deal with a promoter that sees the promoter delivering non-cash additions, such as hotels or executive transportation, then the agent will commonly calculate the money equivalent of these "particular terms and conditions" and charge a percentage of the perceived value of these items when calculating the commission due. Immediately after all, the agent did negotiate very strenuously on behalf of the artist to secure these non-cash perks it is so only fair that the agent ought to be compensated further. It is therefore pretty critical that the artist manager has access to a extremely skilled accountant who can verify the accurate cash worth of these intangibles. What percentage of the Sony PlayStation included backstage need to your booking agent charge for?
The booking method It is the agent's job to negotiate deals with the promoters based on what he or she knows of the act's status, the city or venue he or she is pitching to, and the relationship with the promoter.
The agent will work with the artist's management to identify and plot periods of touring or one-off shows. These shows had been traditionally in support of a new release by the artist, such as a new album, and had been treated as part of the promotional campaign for that new CD, along with radio & Tv appearances, magazine and newspaper interviews and in-store signings. Bands now see live shows and touring as a main source of income as their recorded music revenues have decreased and so tour to make money and not purely as a promotional activity. A very good agent so will be aware of what opportunities exist for their customers.
As soon as a period of gigging activity is agreed with the artist and their management the agent will strategy promoters to arrange the actual shows. In some instances this initial approach will be fairly straight forward, depending on the 'clout' of the agent. 'Superstar' agents such as Marty Diamond (the US agent for Coldplay, Snow Patrol, KT Tunstall, and Artic Monkeys) would naturally be much more in a position to persuade a promoter to take on a tiny, unknown act. The understanding would be that if the promoter works with this act now, then the agent will give the promoter the likelihood to book a larger act in the future.
When booking shows, the agent has to take into account geographical and seasonal matters, as properly as preserve an eye on the competition. An agent will attempt to program the routing of the tour when pitching to promoters. Promoters will be supplied their choose of dates depending on the location of the venue they are booking. For instance, in North America the agent will method all promoters based in the Northwest (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver) with out there dates in the initial 4 days of the tour. Then he or she will strategy promoters in California (San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and so on) with feasible openings for the following four or 5 days. In the UK it would be openings in Scotland for the initial couple of days, and then possibly promoters in Liverpool, Manchester, and Carlisle would be approached for the subsequent week of the tour. Hopefully, the agent can then present a fairly logical routing for the tour, such as north to south or clockwise around the country. This will assure much less travelling and more affordable transportation costs.
This kind of preparing has to be accomplished well in advance (commonly three to 4 months) to guarantee availability in the regions wanted. In some cases it is just not achievable, and you finish up with the considerably-dreaded "Star of David" tour in which just about every show seems to be at the geographical opposite from the previous efficiency!
Seasonal matters also come into play. It is pointless to try to book a club tour of Europe in between June and August if you represent an indie/option act. The vast majority of music fans will be headed for one of the various festivals, such as Reading & Leeds, Roskilde & Pukkelpop and these music fans will consist of your smaller club promoters! Likewise, a coast-to-coast tour of Canada in January/February would be fairly pointless. Even if you could make it via the snow, would the audience turn up?
Lastly, both agents and promoters must have a keen eye on international sports fixtures. These events are direct competition to music events and, regrettably, music usually loses!
When the agent has provisionally booked the act into different cities, he or she will inform the artist manager of the dates on offer and the fees expected. If the manager approves the tour, the agent will concern contracts to the promoters. The agent will then be out there to answer any further questions or concerns the manager or promoters may perhaps have prior to the tour and will act as a go-between should any disagreements arise through the tour itself.
How can you get a booking agent? Unquestionably, as a performer, getting a excellent and successful agent will allow you to get additional shows and, additional importantly, larger shows opening up for larger acts. However, obtaining a great agent will be just as difficult as obtaining a record deal. Geoff Meall (the UK agent for Nickelback, Muse, My Chemical Romance, and Super Furry Animals) says that any band he considers for representation should certainly be "either signed or close to becoming signed since [he is] not going to waste [his] time on touring something that has nothing outside of just being a live band." Most of Geoff's acts come to him via direct recommendation or request from artist managers and labels he has had productive relationships with in the past. Ed Stringfellow, also of the Agency Group, agrees: "There are not sufficient agents out there to deal the number of good emerging bands," he says.
It may for that reason be a distraction to invest time and revenue attempting to secure an agent at the begin of your career. Although an agent can get you shows, and a excellent agent can get you genuinely very good shows, you have to bear in mind that superstar agents such as Geoff Meall have a reputation, and his involvement with an act really only starts when the act has some achievement. "We are approached every day by bands that have no record deal, basically have a MySpace page, have performed some recording, and want to release some demos. Obviously I could go and take this band and book it 20 shows around the country, but, in reality, what would be the point of that? They wouldn't take pleasure in it simply because there wouldn't be any marketing behind them. Very couple of booking agents will get involved with a band from day one," Geoff says. Bob Gold, the managing director of booking agents GAA, admits, "We rarely deal with unsigned bands unless some thing comes up that's honestly thrilling." Bob looks following such acts as REM, Annie Lennox, and Maroon 5. He adds, "If [the band] has got great management, we might take them forward." It does seem like a catch-22 scenario: You need gigs to construct your prospective career, and you will need a successful career to get the shows!
You should not despair although. As with record suppliers and artist management, booking agents will need to know that you are capable of putting in the challenging function and constructing a fan base on your own. Artist managers and booking agents are not going to do the function for you - there is no such factor as an 'overnight good results.' You require to keep playing gigs spreading the word and creating up your fans.
As booking agents function on commission they are going to ask you two valuable questions:
- Can you draw a paying audience into your shows?
- As soon as you can draw a crowd, can you sustain those numbers at every single show you do?
Never ever underestimate the significance of a consistent draw solid audience numbers mean you are reaching consumers and entertaining them, and they want to come back for significantly more. Promoters and music agents only want one factor-a guaranteed amount of ticket sales for any given show. Can you honestly approach a promoter and say that you can guarantee X number consumers at just about every show you do?
Concentrate on the ticket-selling possible and audience-pulling power of your act. This may perhaps mean forgetting about taking your shows to the next level for a substantial amount of time. Construct your self up as a quality act, and the booking agents labels will come to you. It is far far better for your career to play two or three shows a month for six months and have 100 consumers turn up for each single show than it is to play 1 show in front of two,000 individuals and then not play another show for six months. You are the ideal band/artist in the globe (yes, you are!), but has anybody else heard of you however?
Make certain you captivate your audience, no matter how small, at every show you play and in each set you carry out. Compel your audience to come to your next show by getting professional, decent-natured, and properly-rehearsed, each to the audience and to the behind-the-scenes workers. It does not matter no matter whether you are playing to 10 or 1,000 many people, you should really nonetheless act professionally. In fact it is alot more essential if you are playing to 10 many people! Those 10 persons are at least there to see you, so treat them with respect and get them to spread the word for you.
References
Hopewell, M., & Hanlon, J. (2003). Music Management Bible. London: SMT.
Waddel, R., Barnet, R., & Berry, J. (2007).This Home business of Concert Touring and Promotion. New York: Billboard Books.
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