I’m sick of articles that contain the phrase, “during these tough times.” (Sick of writing them. Sick of reading them.)
Many of my contacts in the booking business have freaked out about receipts this year. When jobs are on the line and gas prices rise above $2 per gallons, live entertainment is one of the first [...]
I’ve been wanting to write some new articles about booking concerts. It seems like we’re in another cycle where folks ask me questions like, “now that we have Twitter and Facebook, it should be totally easy to find a booking agent, right?” (Three years ago, it was, “now that we have MySpace…” Before that, it [...]
Many of my friends and colleagues have gravitated into the country music space over the past few years. It makes sense, given that Nashville is probably the last stronghold of the traditional music business model that relies on teams of writers, producers, artists, and marketers to make things happen. In so many ways, country is [...]
Listen to this great description of how one listener uses and enjoys iMix selections from the Apple iTunes Music Store. People in America used to use radio and mixtapes for that kind of experience, but now they turn to other listeners online.
So here’s one suggestion to boost sales of your music while growing your audience.
Think [...]
Instead of selling every seat in the house for $30, INXS recently staged an auction on Ticketmaster. The highest priced ticket sold for $500, the lowest for $3. Nine Inch Nails used a similar model, and watched online scalping drop substantially. Venues and ticket sellers are finally clued in to the idea that pricing for [...]
I was helping to produce a seminar for musicians at the front end of the MySpace explosion — this was a few years ago — and a band pitched a booking agent at the event by saying, “we’ve already got 2,000 friends on MySpace!”
And the booking agent replied, “ugh, you’re not one of those MySpace [...]
[Thanks to a Stereogum commenter for a great headline.]
In my books, I’ve written about the ways that baby bands would push hard to get a date at a venue like CBGB, then complain when a talent buyer would insist on preselling dozens of tickets for a showcase slot. (Hint: the talent buyer knows you don’t [...]
Jay Flanzbaum from the indispensible OnlineGigs has a great article at Galaris this month about the distinction between being effectively persistent and just bugging the snot out of a talent buyer. Most of the bands that claim “nobody will book my band” probably had someone Jay’s describing screw up their potential relationship.
Technorati Tags: music+industry, booking+agent, [...]
This article has been around for awhile but the information is still valid: Working With An Agent.
The point is this: regardless of how wonderful a talent your are, the commissions you pay a booking agent must be able to not only cover the agent’s expenses related to their representing you, but must provide some [...]
Ahem. Check, one two…check… ::thump thump::
Hi. I’m Scott Andrew, singer-songwriter guy from Seattle, and as Joe already mentioned, I’ll be a guest blogger on spinme.com for the next few weeks. I’ve never been a “guest blogger” before, so this is a brand-new venture for me. Also, I hope I don’t break anything. So here we [...]
Jon: haha coincidentia ly i am also going to california in july and was very skeptical about bringing my guitar. im still nervous, but thanks a lot for the tips.
One guy: CD baby said they had digitally distributed my music to 14 digital retailers but after a year I searched each one and came up short on 4 accounts! They sent me emails saying 'sorr...
Ptack: After reading all these articals Jim is the only one that has it right.
