The business of getting bookings - background information for artists & management.

Welcome to the roster! Our appointment under our terms of business is non-exclusive and as such we cannot guarantee the amount of work we will be able to book for you. To ensure that we get the most out of our working arrangement, we've collated a few points from our 23 years of experience that you may find helpful. If you have management, a record label, or a public relations company on board, this information will also be beneficial to them.

You want better quality gigs more often, and we want to book them for you. Great! Your understanding of these considerations is critical to our success working together ;-

1. We’re a small agency with a small team and the work we do for our artists is purely speculative. We are not on retainer and do not charge any upfront fees to represent them, so we are essentially providing a free PR service until any bookings are booked, and this effort represents a cost to us until future possible commissions are paid.
2. Europe and the UK are extremely competitive markets for artists of all levels. Make no mistake - it's a jungle out there!
3. Successful booking requires collaboration from all stakeholders (management, label, artist, agent, PR) to build up an artist's profile and entice bookers to take a risk. If you believe that choosing an agent is the end of your involvement in this area and that you can sit back and watch the bookings come in, you are likely to be frustrated, disillusioned, and maybe with the wrong agency!
4. Each year brings fresh artists and bookers. Well-known artists (in 2015, for example) are now requesting to be booked by people who may have still been in school the last time they toured and thus have little knowledge of who they are. To say it's a 'hard sell' after being away even for a short while is an understatement, and it adds another layer of difficulty, making it much more crucial to maximize your brand's potential.
5. As your wholesaler, we are responsible for some aspects of your marketing mix. (5 P's! Do any of these sound familiar? - Product, Place, Promotion, Price, and People). It is our objective to make the retailers (bookers) feel safe enough to take a risk on you, and this is where we all need to collaborate on your Promotion - making enough noise around the 'product' to build a good business case for your brand and live shows.

How can you maximize your chances of success with our agency?

1. Share the details of our representation agreement, when and where you can so people know you have representation and where and how to book you.
2. Please don’t be protective with contacts/information etc. The more we know, the better we can work on your behalf. It really is a team effort.
3. According to the Music Managers Forum ‘Music Management Bible’ publication, artist marketing & PR is not considered to be part of an agent’s brief. Although we do as much as we can to raise your profile, it is not our main function. Consider how to market your recording, touring and general activities, in addition to our agency's efforts so that by the time our offers hit the bookers, they are aware. Please consider ;-

a. What management-related PR actions are planned?
b. What label-specific PR actions are planned?
c. What artist-related PR initiatives are planned?
d. How will these activities be coordinated?

4. Provide us with any fresh leads, prior venues, or events that you believe would be suitable for your current needs. We have over 3000 active contacts in our database, yet it saves us time not having to reinvent the wheel.
5. Before we can even send a single email on your behalf in the hopes of getting a booking, we have set expenses to bear for the development of media - videos/artwork/agent assignment, etc., thus we truly need every tour booking to go via the agency to make it worthwhile for us. While it is technically possible to take bookings on your own as part of a tour we’re organising on your behalf, doing so can be detrimental to us in the long run.
6. Finally. Please keep in mind that we believe our roster to be exclusive and you're a part of it because we believe in what you do and love your music. There's no other reason. We're not one of those agencies that has hundreds of musicians on their books (directory service) where you're assigned to an associate agent along with a few other artists for 'processing'. I am involved with every single artist/booking/email that is sent out, and we work hard to get as much work for everyone as possible.

It's 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday, and I'm writing in my pajamas. Enough said!

So, to summarise; a successful tour is a team event and requires input from all stakeholders. Expecting us as your agent solely to create enough ‘noise’ for bookers to be interested simply does not work and has been proven to me time and again.

Let’s get to it. Thanks for reading!
Craig.