Questions to ask promoters

You have been rehearsing for weeks and feel ready to show the world what you've achieved. You email dozens of promoters/venues and finally receive a reply. You've been offered a slot! But ask some important questions before you accept it. 

Every promoter runs events differently. Therefore it is important to ask a few things, so you know what to expect. 
When you are happy with the arrangements, accep the slots. If you don't agree and still accept it, it will cause unnecessary stress for you, your band and the promoter/venue. 



PAYMENT - This is an important thing to know. Will you be paid a fee, a percentage of the door takings or will your travel expenses be covered? 
It doesn't hurt to ask if there will be a rider. When you are on tour or are playing in a different city, it is good to know if you will get some food/drinks which you can consider in you budget.

LOAD-IN/SOUNDCHECK/BACKLINE - Is the promoter/venue providing a backline and/or a drum kit? If not, does one of the booked bands have to provide a drum kit? If yes, which band? Make sure that you clarify this well in advance and not the night before the gig. 
Find out if you will have a full soundcheck or just a line check. Ask for your soundcheck time. 

AUDIENCE - Some promoters will expect you to bring a certain amount of fans. If you are an out of town band it is likely that you won't bring a lot of people. Make sure you are honest about this. If it doesn't work for you, just decline the gig offer. 

PROMOTION - Ask what kind of promotion the promoter/venue have in place (newsletters, flyers, social media, etc.). 
You have to promote the gig as well. It is not nice to play to an empty room. 
Gig promotion should happen on the promoter/venue side and the band side. Talk about it to make sure everyone has the same understanding and knows what to do and what is expected. 

GUEST LIST/CHEAP LIST - Some promoters will give you a few complimentary tickets or cheap tickets. Discuss before the gig day if your friend can see the show for free or a lot cheaper.

MERCHANDISE - Find out if you can sell some merch on the night. Is there a merch table available? Do you need to share it with other bands? Is the venue keeping a percentage of the sales? 
Merchandise is an income stream that is very often underestimated by bands. Use the excitement after your performance to sell some of you merch.

(Not) selling contacts

Every now and then a band/musician asks us, if we could share our contact list with them.

This is not only very rude but also shows that this band/musician isn't prepared to work hard, lay the groundwork, network and that they have only little knowledge of the industry.

You should ask yourself: Would you share any of your contacts, just to be nice or do someone a favour?

Put yourself in our position or any music industry professional for that matter. We all run or work for a business. Businesses are only successful when they make a profit or at least break even (Break even means covering all the running costs – some business lingo for you ;) ). Giving away a list with contacts means they are (potentially) losing money (e.g. PR person hands over details of journalists and won’t work on the press campaign for the band or musician, booking agent gives access to list with venue managers, etc.).

Furthermore, it takes years to put such lists together and they also need to be maintained regularly. Again, why would anyone give years of hard work away for free? I know, some of you will say now, just sell it for a few quid. But this is a big no-no as well! The contacts on such lists will be annoyed when they are approached by someone they don’t know. Contacts become worthless, not only for you but also for the person who handed over the list. And no one in the right state of their mind will destroy years of work (read: the foundation of their business). 

Occasionally we will help a band with a couple of details but only when we are considering working with them. Why are we doing this? It is a test. Are they really dedicated and will they use the contacts? Will they thank us? Will they update us on the outcome? Etc. 

But we will always clear with my contacts first to see if it is ok to pass on their details!

Here is another example what some so called “managers” do. There is one manager on this planet who puts lists with industry contacts together to sell them (going through publications like The Unsigned Guide or the Music Week directory). Fair enough. S/He tells his clients though (the people who buy those list) that s/he knows everyone on that list, when in fact, he hasn’t even bothered to check if one is happy to be included in such a list. Annoys me very much and I won’t even check the music of these artists BUT I will tell them why.

When we deny the “request” of a band or a musician to hand over our contacts, unfortunately, some don't take it too well and send some rather rude messages back. Here is a little advice, folks. The time you spend asking for contacts (and sending abusive or insulting messages when this is denied), you could use instead to build your own database of contacts. And if you don’t have time (usually you just can’t be bothered), you should accept the fact that music will always be a hobby for you.

Information is a powerful source in this day and age. Information in the sense of contacts, not only as industry contacts but also as your fanbase! Build your email list, don’t rely on Facebook. But this is another blog for another time!

Peace, Love and Rock & Roll!

Fair Play Guide for Musicians

The Musicians’ Union has published a Fair Play Guide, a good read for all those gigging musicians out there!

Record labels

I am already used to people setting up a record label/management company/booking agency etc without having any idea how to run a business and what is even worse no idea how the music biz works or still living in the “old days” and refuse to learn (new things).

Recently I have come across this, let's call it, “statement”.

Anyone looking to be signed to a […] record label. We will help all our artists with their EP and album sales […].

“Help artists with their EP and album sales” … That is your job as a label! That is why you take a large percentage of the record sales of each artist you have signed to your label.

Panos Panay (Sonicbids) says:

“

If you don’t invest in understanding the business component of your craft, you don’t deserve to call yourself a professional.

“ *

The end.

*Schwartz, Daylle Deanna (2010-10-20). Start and Run Your Own Record Label, Third Edition (Start & Run Your Own Record Label) (Kindle Location 1413). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The next level

“I / We want to get to the next level!” I hear or read that from unsigned artists all the time. But what does the next level mean? Many artist use that sentence without knowing what it means (for them) at all. They picked it up somewhere but never put one thought into it (“Sounds kind of cool” … “No, it doesn't!”). In some cases I get the impression they think that there is an “One-Fits-all”-solution or that I am (or any music industry professional is) a mind reader. Of course, I usually have a rough idea what the artist could mean with that “next level”. But that does not necessarily mean the artist is on the same page.

It is very important in these days to know where you want to go as an artist. When you approach industry professionals it is important to convince them that you know where you are standing in your career and that you have at least a vague idea of where you want to be in the (near) future and that you are serious about being a professional musician / artist.

Think about where you (your band) are at the moment. Write it down! Then think about what you want to achieve next. Let's say you are gigging only local. Do you want gigs in other towns? Great. Write it down. You want to record an EP or even a whole album? Put it on the list. You want to go on tour? You want reviews of you gigs / EP / album? Write it down!

I am sure you can come up with a lot of things you want to do to “get to the next level”.

And next time you approach a management companies you can explain what “the next level” means for you (your band).