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Here’s a scenario I’ve seen play out more times than I can count. Young band/act get some real buzz going around what they are doing. A fancy booking agent steps in and says “now’s your time! Let’s make this happen!” So the band stops booking themselves or leaves...
a smaller agent they’ve been doing the tough work with. What’s the allure? Usually dreams of grandeur or fear that maybe they could miss an important window of opportunity. New fancy agent books a number of bigger, famous acts. The new agent sends the band out...
on a headlining tour with really great guarantees. Way more than the band was making playing DIY shows or cool tiny clubs. But at the end of the night there aren’t quite enough people at the shows for the promoters to make enough to cover everything and are losing money...
But why are the promoters agreeing to these guarantees? Because even though they are likely to lose money on this young band if they don’t book them the promoter might lose shows for the agent’s other famous bands. So they do a little math and figure...
I’ll lose a couple hundred bucks on this one but I’ll get the famous band where hopefully we will make a thousand and it will balance out. Meanwhile the young band is like “wow, we are getting paid! We made it!” But after 6 months or a year of this the promoters start to say...
“Hey, this band isn’t really doing the numbers we thought they might. Let’s tone it down or wait a while” knowing that there was only a small chance that the young band would hit the big guarantee to begin with. The fancy agent comes to the band and says...
“We gave it our best try but things aren’t working out. I’m going to have to drop you. Sorry it happened this way.” But why did the fancy agent take the band on to begin with? Because they had buzz and the agent knew they could make a decent percentage of the guarantees...
And now that they sent them through the wringer the band is left feeling like the bottom has suddenly fallen out from under them but the agency made good money for a year or two. And now they can pick up the next young buzzy band with stars in their eyes and run them through...
Because to really have a long, healthy run as a band you most likely need to work hard and move slow. Make long term relationships with venues and promoters where at the end of the night everyone is happy. But to be a success as a music industry professional you only need...
a new hit thing every year to help pay the bills. Doesn’t matter if that band changes every year. It’s an assembly line. And this happens at all levels of the music industry. Labels, managers, agents, etc. Longevity and artistry doesn’t necessarily pay the bills...
So how do we build a different model? It’s actually pretty simple. Work with people you trust. Don’t buy into the quick schemes. Have long term goals. Most importantly build long term relationships built on a shared vision. Basically don’t fuck people over for short term gains.
