photo © 2006 Mike McC | more info (via: Wylio)This is a great post by Dave Cool on the Bandzoogle blog about how to get a booking agent. It is filled with great, yet simple and to the point, advice. Years ago, just out of college I worked with a management company that represented unsigned bands from Chicago… Unleashed, The Ultraviolet and Defcon. Booking the bands was always a top priority. We were always looking for agents who could help, but also taking on the task ourselves. This was before the internet era, but many of the same principles applied back then. You need to be the big fish in your small pond before you decide to go venture into another market.
My Key Points:
1. Mailing list – build it, build it, build it!
2. Rehearse – your live show needs to be as tight and professional as possible.
3. Respect – show the utmost respect to the venue bookers, stage crews, sound guys, door guys… everyone! If you piss off just one of them you may never be back. Buy them a drink, if you are going out to get some dinner, bring back something for the sound guy.
4. Think about the college circuit – Most bands only think about playing clubs. But you should think about playing the college circuit. Go visit NACA.org. This is a organization that represents colleges around the country. I spent a few years booking my unsigned bands on the college circuit. They will often pay better than a club. Will have much nicer venues to play, have better sound and lights. They also have campus radio, TV and newspapers which you can reach out to promo your appearance.
5. Know your cost – Do you know how much it costs for you to go on the road? Figure it out before you start booking shows. You may not always get that figure, but you need to know at what point you are losing money. This includes things like; airfare, vehicle rental, fuel costs, crew costs, gear rental, food, lodging, commissions paid, etc.
How to Get a Booking Agent to Book Your Band
One of the most common questions I was asked by artists during my time as a venue booker was how they could find a booking agent. I inevitably answered that they should just keep playing gigs, grow their fan base, and an agent would find them. But is the answer really that simple? In a word, yes. By far the best way to get a professional booking agent is for bands to book themselves until the point where they are selling out shows on a regular basis on their own.
What does this mean exactly? To put it in numbers, regularly sell-out shows of 100-150 people at around $10 per ticket in your home market. What’s your home market? Your home city, plus maybe 2-3 other nearby cities/towns. If you can sell 100-150 tickets at $10 each in a few cities on a regular basis (once every few months), then you’ll be generating the kind of income that would be interesting to a booking agent, and there’s a good chance they’ll come find you at that point. Easy, right?
OK, all kidding aside, I know how hard it can be to get to that point. And I know what you’re thinking: is it really all about the money? Yes and no. Agents are music fans too, however, they aren’t going to work for free. Think about it from their perspective: if you’re not even making $200 per show, why would they work for a % of that revenue? A professional agent makes their living from the commissions of a band’s show revenues, usually around 15%. So if your live show revenue isn’t in the $800+ range, it’s going to be very hard to convince a professional booking agent to get on board with your career.
So what if you’re not selling that many tickets just yet? What can you do to help build your career up to the point where an agent might be interested in working with you? Here are some key areas to focus on:
- Build a mailing list with 1000+ people, get 1000+ Facebook Fans, and 1000+ Twitter Followers
Are there bands out there who have less than 1000 mailing list subscribers, Facebook fans or Twitter followers, but who have a booking agent? I’m sure there are, but once you reach that level, you’re putting yourself a cut above where most bands are at, and then you can start thinking about putting together a team of professionals, including a booking agent. You’ll have a solid following that you can use to generate bodies at live shows, especially if those fans and followers are concentrated in your home market.
- Work on your live show: rehearse often and pay attention to your set list
Get your live show to the point where people are going home blown away and talking about you when they leave the venue. So rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse again, then play as many shows as you can. And be sure to build your set list in a way that makes for a great show, not just a series of songs played one after another. In a new documentary film about the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl talked about how when the band first started out they didn’t pay too much attention to their set list. But once the crowds started growing, they spent time developing a solid set list that maximized the song order to put on the best show possible, instead of simply writing song names down a few minutes before the show.
- Work on your “brand”
Does you band have a consistent look on stage? You don’t have to dress up in uniforms (although that’s ok too if it’s your thing), but having a cohesive look on stage can go a long way to showing that you’re serious about the visual presentation of your band.
- Develop a good relationship with venue bookers
This goes back to my blog post about impressing venue bookers, if you develop solid relationships with bookers, chances are they will talk about you to booking agents. And if an agent hears about your band through a trusted source like a venue booker, it’s as good as gold.
- Use your website
If you’re generating some buzz in your local scene, make sure that if an agent does check out your band that you have the right information on your website for them to see. Create a “Book My Band” section on your website, which would be similar to an online press kit, but it would include things like:
- Statistics about the # of newsletter subscribers you have, Facebook fans and Twitter followers
- Average attendance for your shows: are you regularly selling out 50-seat venues? 100-seat venues? Put that information somewhere on the page.
- Mention which markets you play in
- Have a photo gallery with lots of good quality live pics (any photos that include crowds in packed venues are a bonus)
- Post good quality live videos (good video quality, good audio quality, packed rooms, minimal talking. Audience sing-a-longs are a bonus!)
- Stage plot
- Set list
- Quotes from media that mention your live show
- Quotes from venue bookers
- Quotes from fans about your live shows
Other than that, you should always blog about your live shows. Talk about the turnout, the crowd reaction, and post plenty of pics and live video whenever you can. All of this will help create the impression that you’re a hard-working band that takes their live shows seriously.
Should I get my friend/family member/fan to book me?
One last issue that I’ll address is whether a band should hire a friend, family member or fan to do booking for them. Although it’s tempting to delegate booking, which can be a tedious task that involves a lot of follow-up (and rejection), I think it’s best that artists book themselves until they get a professional agent on board.
The biggest reason for this is that most of the time, a friend/family member/fan is a very temporary solution, so all too often I’ve seen situations where someone starts booking a tour for a band, but then bails on them halfway through. And if you have reliable friends who will stick through it? I still think it’s better to do it on your own. The more you learn about the industry as an artist, the more informed you’ll be when your career starts to grow. So if you book yourself 200+ shows, including a few tours, you’re going to have a much better understanding of what it takes to be a good booking agent, so you’ll know what to look for when you are at the point in your career when hiring a booking agent becomes a reality.
What a great article! Good points. Dave Cool, you rock… but you know that I think that already. 😉 And you are so right, if you are not making much money at your shows, why would an agent work with you? Taking a percent of your earnings is how they make their living. So what do you do? You have to get out there and build a following. Hustle. Play shows. Create a buzz. And network like crazy. Then maybe you’ll get the attention of a hard working, awesome booking agent who will help take your music career to a new level.
Hey, My name is Mark and I have been playing in bands since the early 80’s and my old band Counter Attak was very popular in the Chicago metal scene back then. We had no problems booking shows. Now, almost 30 years later im in a classic rock/dance cover band with a female singer. I find it very hard to book shows. Bar owners are not as willing to put a band on stage with all the competition from DJ’s. Our rates are good but there seems to be less bars and more bands trying to get in. We have a demo, bio, pictures etc. but they just dont seem to book bands. They have a small handful of bands that are already established and they contiunally use the same bands and I have never seen this before. Wanted to get an agent but like your article states you need a following. Any thoughts on how to break into some bars so we can build our list and move ahead. We used to go do a jam nite which would turn into a booking. But not too many of those around either. Very frustrated. Any thoughts?
Mark, as you said its a case of more bands and less venues. It is difficult to provide any sort of thoughts on your situation without really understanding your past effort, your current efforts and what is happening in the scene.