Members Opus Antics Posted January 19, 2015 Members Share Posted January 19, 2015 Would anyone who works with agents to book their band be willing to share their experience, wisdom, warnings, thoughts. Feel free to message me if you don't want to post anything publicly. Experiences in the northeast would be particularly relevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SbrickwallS Posted January 20, 2015 Members Share Posted January 20, 2015 Hey Opus, I'm down in the south but I have dealt with booking agents and if your goal is to put them to work then I feel like they can be very beneficial. The good thing about them for me was that if you were wanting to get booked outside of the area you are living/working in then they come in very handy as it was hard for us for locate and land gigs outside our region all on our own. We also had an agreement on how often we wanted to gig so the opportunities were always there for us. I also enjoyed that fact that our agent would handle all of the business end with each venue so it frees you up to just concentrate on playing.It did cost us 10% of whatever we would agree to do the show for though but for the most part, it was worth it. Some bad parts were that the booking agents in my area like for you to sign a contract (typically one year at a time) and if you were to land a gig on your own without going through our agent he would be able to get 10% of that income as well even though he didn't get the gig for us per his contract. I'm sure all booking agents have different requirements, but that's how ours was. Also, most agents in my area have their particular group of venues in their back pocket so if you were to terminate your contract with them early or leave on bad terms you proabably won't be playing in his handful of venues anytime soon.Overall, I enjoyed the service we got for the price it cost us. Hope some of that helps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members djrnno Posted January 20, 2015 Members Share Posted January 20, 2015 Hey Sbrickwall$, I'm down south as well , in New Orleans. Do you know of any agents that work this area ? I'd love to find one cause I don't have enough time to really devote to booking that I'd like . Let me know please my email is dannyreid1957@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WynnD Posted January 21, 2015 Members Share Posted January 21, 2015 I like the Musician's Union's approach to Agents. Reasonable rates without screwing the musician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TrickyBoy Posted January 22, 2015 Members Share Posted January 22, 2015 We book almost every gig we do through an agent. We have a main one that we have an exclusive agreement with, and then a couple others that we work with from time to time. Now that I use them, I'd never go back. Sure we pay 10% to our agent, but our pay has probably doubled as they get us much better gigs than we'd get on our own. I think the most important thing to understand is how agents work. I hear about how this agent or that one is an "asshole" because they wouldn't book a band. The reality is, IME, most agents have a group of exclusive acts that they work with. They also tend to work themselves into the position of being the booking agent for specific rooms (all bookings for that room goes through them). Sure from time to time, agents will book bands outside of their exclusive group, but they are always going to give all their gigs to their exclusive bands first. It makes sense, they make money on ALL their exclusive band's gigs, so they are going to always try to book them first. I fought it for a while, but in reality, they are worth every penny we pay them. If you find a good agent who wants to work FOR you (as opposed to with you), grab him/her. It's done wonders for our band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members n9ne Posted January 23, 2015 Members Share Posted January 23, 2015 It's worth mentioning that no agent is going to just hand over their high-paying gigs to an unknown and unproven band; expect to get a lot of smaller low-money travel dates for a little while, until you've shown that you're dependable and professional, and that you can hang with the big boys. In my experience, your first foot in the door at A-list clubs will be due to another band's last minute cancellation, and the agent is scrambling to fill the date. It's quid pro quo....you help him out of a jam and he starts giving you better dates. If the bigger clubs like you, they'll add you to their rotation.....and once you're in the rotation at a few "A-list" clubs, then you're staying busy with good-paying dates. But I would expect to spend the first couple months paying your dues and not making a ton of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hired Gun Posted January 23, 2015 Members Share Posted January 23, 2015 Here is my experience in the DC area. There are many corporate gigs, civic events, etc. that we must use an agency for. The agency squares everything away, administers the contract, organizes sound/lights/stage, collects the pay from the venue, etc. The agency gets 20%, and it is TOTALLY worth it in my experience. As a point of reference a typical gig might be $600, 3 hours, 4 piece band on the local town square stage on a summer evening...that sort of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 It's worth mentioning that no agent is going to just hand over their high-paying gigs to an unknown and unproven band; expect to get a lot of smaller low-money travel dates for a little while, until you've shown that you're dependable and professional, and that you can hang with the big boys. In my experience, your first foot in the door at A-list clubs will be due to another band's last minute cancellation, and the agent is scrambling to fill the date. It's quid pro quo....you help him out of a jam and he starts giving you better dates. If the bigger clubs like you, they'll add you to their rotation.....and once you're in the rotation at a few "A-list" clubs, then you're staying busy with good-paying dates. But I would expect to spend the first couple months paying your dues and not making a ton of money. Great post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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