Booking your band: who's taking care of it?

[BenoA]

I'm just curious to know how you are doing it.

I'm the one taking care of this for my band and I found it very difficult.

Venues owner or the person related to booking the band at the bar are difficult to reach and talk to.

When you finaly get a hold of them, they (too many times) treat you like a POS. I don't want to "generalize" it, some act nicely but most of them have that "snobbish" look at you, as they were so superior to you.

Even if you have the nicest promo stuff, web site or audio CDs/DVDs, they barely look at it, watch or even listen to it. I doubt that most of the time, they simply throw it in the garbage.

Also, most venues don't promote and even don't care about bands. You bring them 2 dozens posters (because they ask for it) and only install like 3! I remember that 20-25 years ago it was way different.

Another thing that some venues do is "battle-of-the-band" contest: so they invite you to perform like 30 minutes in a contest, then the winner gets to play the venue during the weekend. That way they don't pay you a $ and you play there twice (if you win).

We had a few hit and miss in the past few months and we're planning visiting fewer venues but keep going to those that treat the bands properly. Play less but play the better places.

So how is it in your part of the world?

[OnlineStageGear]

Around here the key word is DRAW. How many people are you going to draw into the bar? Bar owners could give a Rats Ass if you are a good band or not. If they shell out $500 for you to play there and you only draw in 50 people, the bar owner probably just lost $100 especially if they are paying for PA. If you draw people and have a following then you are golden and you can either keep the door ($5 a head or whatever) or get payed a flat rate. Sure it sucks to play for free but this is show business and if you can't show some business, then it is what it is.

[BenoA]

Around here the key word is DRAW. How many people are you going to draw into the bar?

For sure. Bunch of places here don't even pay you anymore and ask money for the venue (from 50$ to 300$). You keep the door.

Drawing lotsa people at every gig can be very challenging at times...

[markD]

my band has a managment/booking agent - basically a local girl that LOVES our band and is willing to put in tons of hours to get us good gigs. we don't play bars anymore, we only open for national shows. it kinda sucks because most of the time we only get a 30 minute set. occasionally we get a 45 minute set, depending on how many bands are travelling on the tour package. as far as money, we don't make much. what we bring home depends on our sales. usually, the shows we play require us to sell ticketmaster tickets (pretty much pay-to-play). But, because we ALWAYS make our numbers, we are having to sell WAY less than the other bands that get the national shows. Most of the bands are having to move 75 tickets, we have to do 40. We also make $5 per ticket, other bands are making $2 per ticket.

i agree drawing a large crowd for every show is difficult. one of the issues we have is that since we haven't been playing bars and/or smaller venues it is hard for us to make new fans. everytime our manager looks into booking us into a smaller place, and she cuts through the BS, we get offered another national show. the bar owners think their venue is the only gig in town and bands get treated poorly. with us being an all original band, many of the bar owners don't want us because we can't play (really, it's we won't play) a 3 hour set with 70% covers. our manager is really bold too. she has NO problem sticking to her guns and our resume/promo-kit speaks for itself. we ended up going all digital - she emails a lot of them out, it saved us tons of money. if the owner wants to delete it, fine by us since we aren't out any money.

in the end, we usually play a show - maybe 2 - per month. it's not much, and we certainly aren't a "working band", but we never have to cart a PA, we get to meet cool (former) rockstars, and we get to play on some big stages with bad-ass lights. makes me happy!!!

[BenoA]

we get to meet cool (former) rockstars, and we get to play on some big stages with bad-ass lights. makes me happy!!!

Sounds cool! Can we "clone" your manager!

We do not want to play out often too. Once a month for us is enough and keeps us out of the rehearsal studio once in a while.

I'm wondering if we should not try it out with one of those local booking agencies.

[markD]

look around, you may be surprised at what you find. our "manager" is just a chick that thinks we are really good. we made up a name for a "management company" and she has an email address for the "company". the singer and i talk to her a lot and let her know what we want and she is MORE than willing to do it.

if you have local booking agents, contact them. you never know what they might say.

[jgcable]

We have a booking agent, a band attorney, a web designer and probably a few other dudes I don't even know.
They take care of everything.
Its all about draw. If you don't draw you don't get any respect from the clubs booking agent.
It doesn't matter how good you are to the club owner or the clubs booking agent. The only thing that matters is how many people you draw on a regular basis. So, what does that mean? I'll tell you.
#1. You need to be great. Everything about your band needs to be great from the look to the sound to the song selection. If you have 1 weak member... get rid of him.
#2. You need to be able to draw a big crowd on any day of the week. The succesful bands that get all the respect and all the cash can pack a club on a rainy cold Tuesday night.
#3. See above.