Also in this issue:

To put it simply, if you are in a band, or are a musician of any sort, you need this book. It is essential reading for those about to go on tour or in the early stages of planning one. Call it the bible of touring. Call it the Holy Grail of knowledge. Whatever hyperbole you want to throw at it, the book lives up to all of it. Put it this way: Spinal Tap wouldn't have had little people dancing around a foot-high replica of Stonehenge had they read this.

Peter Lindblad -
Goldmine Magazine

Four Stars! The ultimate touring manual... tackles every conceivable aspect of getting the show on the road in a highly readable style.

Kris Needs -
MOJO

Literally crammed with ideas and strategies for squeezing the most out of your group, from merchandising plans to really using the internet, gig planning and stage presence... A vital repository of hard-learned lessons and essential pointers.

Terrorizer Magazine

If you don't buy this book you will work a lifetime playing catch-up to the bands who do.

Lee Popa (Soundman)

Finally, a book that is the real f***ing story and not some fairy tale.

Jim Cuomo -
Ryko Distribution

Booking: DIY vs. Agents

Excerpted from "Chapter 10" of
Tour:Smart and Break The Band by Martin Atkins

“I never found anybody who could manage my career any better than I could.”
- Steve Miller (Steve Miller Band)

Thanks Steve, but we’re talking about booking here…

A small band trying to get somewhere can do much better using their own resources, friends, and other bands because a smaller band cannot be a priority with an agent. Booking yourself is the best way to protect your band, and your future.

Good agents are increasingly rare these days, they are all overworked. Right now, there are a bazillion bands and tomorrow there will be a bazillion and ten. If you want to develop a larger audience and an increasingly better show, you’re going to spend whatever time it takes to carefully make sure that your first shows are in the right places with the best chance of success. That is not necessarily the goal of an agent.

What do you get from an agent? You get a human being… a human being that can’t really protect you and probably has less knowledge of the geography of the U.S., and certainly your band than you do. In terms of your career, it might ultimately be worth spending three months slowly working on getting a show at a prominent nationally-known venue. For an agent, it’s worth the commission.

“I know the tour doesn’t work - I know.
But I need to make a boat payment.”
- Agent

The quote above says it all. This agent doesn’t care about the damage he is doing to a band’s career and is very far away from providing a nurturing, managerial relationship for the band. How successful was the tour? Well, the agent got to make his boat payment.

Whether you are looking for an agent or booking yourself (or both):

Keep a detailed history of your shows and activity—the attendance, the ticket price, the day of the week, the weather, the guarantee, notes about the venue, how many shirts you sold, what size, and how many CDs you sold,is essential information for you to be able to pitch: “In the Midwest, we play to 300 people a night, have this many street teamers, and 3,000 kids on our mailing list. We could make sure that the dates for X band from Europe go really well.” This is a really important building block in understanding the business of your band : the strong points and, just as importantly, the weak points.

Are these sales enough to justify or subsidize a buy-on with another band and larger audience?

Hype and bullshit doesn’t count. Honesty does.

There is no benefit to having the agent or promoter expecting 200 people on a Tuesday night if only 120 people show up, it’s a failure. If you honestly think you’re good for 20 people and 47 people show up, it’s a success. Professionals are used to seeing a band develop, they will be more excited by the possibilities of twice the attendance you expected than they will be by half of what you hoped for.

So get busy.

You’re not going to find an agent unless you get out there and start to do the work. A good agent is going to want to know the details and the peculiarities of your business so he knows some of the areas in which he can negotiate; does he have to concentrate on a better sound system? More lights? Vegetarian food on the rider? The only way you (and then your agent) can talk knowledgably about these matters is for you to have been out there and to have done it.

BOOKING YOURSELF

If you book yourself, you can use your connections to help yourself and an out of town band that is useful to you. You can make decisions based on the long term good of the band, not the commission. It’s a quick learning curve, just like cocaine, the more you do, the more you’ll know.

START EARLY

Start the process a minimum of three months before the first show. Work through planning, ideas and information before that. In the pre-planning stage, before you pick up the phone you should identify the markets you think you can do well in and why. That’s the first step to being able to convince somebody else. Let the information you have speak to you and follow its advice. If your initial tour plan targets Dallas and all of your fans are in Denton, play Denton. It might not look so cool on the back of a shirt, but it’s going to feel an awful lot better when people show up. Plan carefully. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and you can’t afford changes to your plan once some shows have been confirmed. By the time you realize the Thursday night would’ve been better than the Tuesday, the club might be booked up for the next two months.

Be organized about the way you communicate, software, charts, different colored pens, use anything and anyone that helps. Contact more than one venue in each market. You might think you know the right venue, but when you’re just starting out, the right venue is the one that will give you a show.

PACKAGES

Research venues on the web and submit materials in the way that is the most convenient for them. If you can afford it, track packages. If you wait two weeks to call to make sure a package has been received, that’s when you find out the booker is only there on a Wednesday and Thursday. You called on a Friday, so you call back the following Wednesday and that’s when you find out that the package hasn’t been received, you just blew three weeks. FedEx is expensive, but you can FedEx Ground something for $7 or $8 or add delivery confirmation from USPS for $0.60; you can allocate your resources. FedEx packages to the ten or twenty most important venues and use a cheaper method for the additional packages.

Make sure you follow up within a reasonable time after your submission.

PREPARE FOR THE CALL

Read the “Promoters and Venues” chapter. Those guys are telling you what they want! It’s priceless! Always remember that what you’re asking for is a favor. Know your information—concentrate on the hard facts—not the opinions. Opinions are like DJ’s—everybody is one.