Members TrickyBoy Posted March 30, 2010 Members Share Posted March 30, 2010 Anyone here doing it? It seems that in this area it would be really beneficial, but I wanted to see what other people's experience with working with agencies has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humancertainty Posted March 30, 2010 Members Share Posted March 30, 2010 Booking agency? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members THX1138 Posted March 30, 2010 Members Share Posted March 30, 2010 Some agents are great, some are crooks. Worked with a great agency for a few years in the mid 90's. Full time coverband, booked all over the southeast in top venues. 15% commission, but well worth it. Also worked with an agent locally last summer (no choice, club insisted on booking through him). Hated mailing that commission check - he didn't do anything we couldn't do. If the club had gone through us directly, we'd have saved them $300. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted March 30, 2010 Members Share Posted March 30, 2010 Ditto with THX. We've had some that are great... others just terrible. For three years we've worked with one agent for bookings into New England. The Pro's: He's fair, organized (for the most part) and has gotten us excellent money in rooms we would have never gained entry into. The Con's: He has mismanaged up some cancellations from us before (harming the club and not us)... Despite top billing, we feel that he keeps us out of certain rooms so we don't compete aginst his band. Still we've worked with him for a while with little complaint. He's gotten us into rooms in Boston, RI, CT... even a shot at Key West. We don't mind sharing some of the loot. A few years ago we were working with a similar agent (had a top band in his area) in a different area. The experienced sucked. He misquoted on a few occasions. He double booked. Word would get back to us that his roster was full of terrible bands and we were probably suffering because of it. When it was appearent we weren't going to travel far distances to play {censored}holes for less than $XXXX he just stopped calling us. He was sending us offers for $700-800 rooms with a 2-3hr commute. We were making twice as much as that at home. Keep in mind... we book 75% of our gigs independently because we have our own manager to do so. It really depends on the market your in. In my market the scene is DIY. In other markets dealing with competing agencies is a neccesity to gain entry into A-list rooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members plepue Posted March 30, 2010 Members Share Posted March 30, 2010 We are not opposed to working through agents and have on occasion. However, we do not get involved in any exclusive representation. Here in California you must be licensed and bonded to be an agent and none of them are so those agreements are void anyway. We have great success booking priavte events, weddings coprorate etc on our own through Gigmasters.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humancertainty Posted March 30, 2010 Members Share Posted March 30, 2010 I've only used agencies for tours. With the agencies I have worked with, we always made it clear from the beginning that we would handle local bookings.U.S. agents should charge you 10%. That seems to be a standard.Europe is always 15%. You get a lot more for that 15% that any U.S. agent will do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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