Members twentyforseven Posted July 28, 2002 Members Share Posted July 28, 2002 Our band stays pretty busy with real jobs to fund our passion for playing music. Consequently, we have very little time to promote and book shows. My question is, How much should you pay a person with conections to book shows for you? In the past, we had a person that would get paid like an additional member of the band but, he seemed to be getting paid too much money for our work IMO. Should we go with a professional management co. or keep it simple with a person out there booking for us? Thanks in advance.... Todd www.twentyforseven.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratKat Posted July 29, 2002 Members Share Posted July 29, 2002 My two cents here is that you should always go with the legit bookers in any region rather than let friends or family do it. Why? Because the pros have the better gigs for better pay and all the insider contacts for the best clubs. Your friends or family dont.... All they can do is the typical walk in the door and ask to see the manager thing. Then try to schmooooooze them into an audition. Usually they tell them to contact their booker anyways so it can mean that if you get the gig it costs twice as much out of your pocket. And, when your band gets to the better clubs you most likely will find they FORCE you to use their bookers or you dont work there. So why duplicate the trouble by having someone their bookers wont appreciate interfering? Ive known alot more arseholes in the booking industry than in the bar industry. And thats saying something. Most treat you like they own you as a peice of property. You do what they say, when they say, the way they say, or you dont play the best gigs. They may not say that out loud but you wallet will reflect it if its true. And those who refuse to play along seldom get in these high buck clubs. Regardless of their local following. Its a power thing with them.... The bars will make money whether you are there packing it in or a lame band is there just getting by. As long as the bar makes some kind of profit they dont really care about how hot your group is. They can always live without you. But there are exceptions to every rule and ive met a couple over the years myself. Honest guys who can get the gigs. But they usually are in like flynn with the owners and book exclusively through them. So either way you gots to play their game for the gig. Its all part of the art of the business. When you use a friend you also run the risk of a bad scene when you dissagree with them. Soooooner or later this will happen. You will want more than they can do. They wont have the savvy or connections to go further. And you end up cutting their throat. Beeeen there, done that a few times myself. This is a biz. Treat it like one and you may survive. Treat like a friendship and it will always fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Translucent26 Posted July 30, 2002 Members Share Posted July 30, 2002 how do you go about getting an agent? Do you look it up in the phonebook? If so, what is it under? i think thats what my band needs next... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kingnome Posted July 30, 2002 Members Share Posted July 30, 2002 You can either look through the local music/trade papers and find their ads and/or "presented by" 's, or call the clubs and see who they use. As far as "seemed to be getting paid too much money for our work" - I'm not sure what you mean by this. If you agreed to a percentage or a flat fee, you agreed to it, so what's the bitch? How much should he make? I've paid ten and fifteen percent of the gig to booking agents, and having done ALOT of booking myself, 15 percent is pretty fair when you figure in the costs and the bull{censored}. You already admitted that no one in your band has the time to invest. I'm not ragging on you- it just seems like you want the best of both worlds, so I'm confused. I'd just like to add that if your band doesn't have any experience dealing with real booking agents, make sure that they're all aware of the fact that these guys won't want to waste their time for a bunch of not-so-serious slackers with no following. Show these guys you want to make them money, and they'll work to make that happen. Show them you can't be counted on, and you'll get a bad rep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Scheming Demon Posted July 30, 2002 Members Share Posted July 30, 2002 Like the King said, 10-15% is typical. Booking agents can be a double edged sword. If you happen to be the flavor of the month you may get lots of bookings. If not, you may not get many more gigs than you could book on your own anyway. In many cases, to play regularly or get into the better clubs you almost have to go with an agency. They have many clubs locked up, especially if they have a couple big draws. They force the club owners to use them exclusively. That is somewhat the case in my neck of the woods but there are still quite a few clubs that book whoever they want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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