What is the criteria for adding artists to our roster?
- Artistic excellence: the artist has achieved the highest level of artistry within their genre, in terms of writing, vocal and instrumental skills, and performance
- Creativity and uniqueness: the artist is highly creative and has developed a unique and recognizable style of performance
- Accessibility: the artist's music has the potential to appeal to a wide enough audience the it will be profitable for the agency to represent him/her
- Business acumen: the artist has the skills and understanding to guide their own career successfully, whether self-managed or by taking on a good management team and providing proper direction
- Agency passion: the agency needs to love the work of the artist to the point that they can enthusiastically spread the word about this artist's work, and remain enthusiastic in the face of temporary setbacks
How does one become an opener for one of our artists?
Unfortunately this isn't something that we can generally do for a musician interested in doing an opening set. Our primary responsibility is to take care of the artists that we already represent, so we try to focus our time on that. You're welcome to contact the presenting organization/venue, and if they turn out to be interested in having you open a show for one of our artists, they'll check with us for approval. That's about all the time we can devote to this. Keep in mind that the vast majority of our artists' shows don't have openers.
On the odd occasion that these shows do have openers, we're generally looking for two things:
On the odd occasion that these shows do have openers, we're generally looking for two things:
- A really good artistic match between the audience that we expect to draw and the music of the potential opener
- The opener needs to be able to help sell some tickets in that particular venue/market
If you really feel that you fit both criteria, then reach out to the presenting organization/venue, not to us. Thanks.
Why do you do this kind of work?
One of our artists has told us that he simply can't understand why a person would want any of these three jobs in the music business: 1) sound engineer, 2) road manager, and 3) booking agent. The more we think about it, it's tough for any of us who have a particular interest and skill set to understand how other people can do what they do all day. We also can't understand why everybody else doesn't find our particular worlds as fascinating as we do.
After so many years in this business, we get a lot of satisfaction from many parts of our work. The first and probably biggest part is all of the people with whom we interact every day. The people we talk with most often are the little family of artists that we represent. They are a bunch of visionary, brilliant, wacky, kind, and endlessly creative people. Getting to talk with them on a regular basis is like a combination of therapy and stand-up comedy. Some are more organized than others.
The next best thing is that nearly every time we book a concert, workshop, or any other kind of event, we know that something really cool is going to happen when the contract date comes around. Whether the fees are large or small, we can anticipate some of the things that will happen between audience and artist. One of the reasons that we choose to represent certain artists is that, in their own unique ways, they each inspire some sort of greatness out of each person in every audience. It's way beyond just booking entertainment (which to us sounds more like just selling a commodity) — we get to be a part of deeper experience for lots of people.
And did we mention the paperwork? Who doesn't love trying to work their way through a university performance contract that few normal humans can understand? Actually, it is fun to negotiate in good faith, and work out financial agreements that make sense and are fair to everyone involved. It's very satisfying to close a deal, write up and send out a contract, and send all of the confirmation information to the artists. In general there's a cyclic nature to this work that can feel like nothing is ever complete, so we have to revel in each small victory. Check … done … next!
After so many years in this business, we get a lot of satisfaction from many parts of our work. The first and probably biggest part is all of the people with whom we interact every day. The people we talk with most often are the little family of artists that we represent. They are a bunch of visionary, brilliant, wacky, kind, and endlessly creative people. Getting to talk with them on a regular basis is like a combination of therapy and stand-up comedy. Some are more organized than others.
The next best thing is that nearly every time we book a concert, workshop, or any other kind of event, we know that something really cool is going to happen when the contract date comes around. Whether the fees are large or small, we can anticipate some of the things that will happen between audience and artist. One of the reasons that we choose to represent certain artists is that, in their own unique ways, they each inspire some sort of greatness out of each person in every audience. It's way beyond just booking entertainment (which to us sounds more like just selling a commodity) — we get to be a part of deeper experience for lots of people.
And did we mention the paperwork? Who doesn't love trying to work their way through a university performance contract that few normal humans can understand? Actually, it is fun to negotiate in good faith, and work out financial agreements that make sense and are fair to everyone involved. It's very satisfying to close a deal, write up and send out a contract, and send all of the confirmation information to the artists. In general there's a cyclic nature to this work that can feel like nothing is ever complete, so we have to revel in each small victory. Check … done … next!