The Manager’s Corner
by Chris Daniels
I’ve managed my own band for 31 years and I’m in the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. All that’s nice but today’s music business is changing at light-speed and you have to be more engaged in the ‘biz’ than ever. Some things have not changed, careers are still built on some tried and true elements: great music, performance and timing. But today’s artists must work harder than ever to succeed. The good news is that we have new tools to help young musicians grow their fan base. The book I wrote for the course I teach at CU Denver on artist management is called “DIY: You’re Not in it Alone.” While you are ultimately responsible for your own career, these days it’s essential to make the most of all the help that is offered along the way.
Young bands are always struggling with booking gigs. It’s no secret that the Colorado scene is growing and flourishing in ways that we could not have imagined 10 years ago when The Fray broke out. We have several artists that are signing deals with major and independent labels, artists that are planning major tours and organizations like the Durango Songwriter Expo who’s encouragement of young artists is at least partly responsible for the success of writers like Megan Trainor and her “It’s All About The Bass.” But with all that going on the traffic lanes to get into the live venues and festivals are getting more crowded than ever. And that means that artists just breaking into the scene need to have their act more together than ever before.
There are five basic steps to setting out on this course. It assumes that you want/need to perform and are not relying on the internet or the luck of a TV game show to propel you beyond your home studio, basement or garage. The first has nothing to do with business. If your music is not ready for “prime time” – meaning that if you are not good enough to have people who bust their butts working a crap day job put down their hard earned six or ten dollars to see you – then you need to keep working on it before you take it out. You should have at least 45 minutes to an hour of music that is fantastic…that your friends think is killer and are telling their friends about. If you are getting together in your garage or rehearsal space once a month and trying to figure out what tunes to play and what your style is … you are not ready to leave the ‘wood shed’ and you need to stay out of the crowded lanes of performing in venues around Colorado.
Second, if you have your musical act together and you are playing out as best you can – than you are ready to up your game. You will need business tools to do it: (a) a one-sheet plus a website and Facebook fan page – plus other social media (b) a video that SOUNDS GOOD as well as looking good (c) a place to park your EPK (electronic press kit) – most folks use ReverbNation, SonicBids, BandCamp or all three (there are others too) (d) a SoundCloud page where you can upload all your music that represents what you want to sell (e) good photo that is high enough resolution that venues can upload it for their websites to advertise the shows. These sound simple but the fact is what is represented in this paragraph is serous programming… hours of work and then maintenance on a daily and weekly basis. This means you have to delegate these tasks to members of your crew or appoint one person to do it and give them some serious good stuff for all this work – like money! Each of these tools are essential. If you don’t understand the importance of any of the items listed above … then do some research and see how and why successful artists are using them.
Third is research. I can’t tell you how many people write me on a weekly basis asking to “pick my brain” – (a phrase I find particularly annoying) about how to book their band. The translation of this phrase is, “I haven’t done any research into what to do for booking my band and I would like you to give me all the answers you have researched over the past year … for free…so I can compete with your band for gigs. Really? Research is essential. One brief example: I have had four people contact me in the past month about the Root 40 Music Festival. Here is the sad news. It’s not happening this year. And this is the kind of research you need to do by yourself. I’ve had great metal bands come to me and ask how to get into Swallow Hill to do a gig. Really? Swallow Hill presents acoustic music … so unless you are going to do an entire evening of metal on acoustic instruments (which is a killer idea and might be something that Swallow Hill would love to try) you are being an idiot. Herman’s Hideaway is a great venue and they “play” a really wide variety of acts but you need to check out what they do before you approach Mike, Chris, or Tim about booking your act there. There are so many great resources for doing this. Colorado Music Buzz is one of them! Look at who’s playing what venues – what styles – what cover charges – how many bands per night – local or national or both – all if it. The Fox and Boulder Theater are booked by the same company (and owned by that company) but you are not going to get an opening act slot there unless you do some research into who books them and what they “play.” Every venue and festival has a website and they all say “contact” or “booking” or some other term that implies this is how you reach them about booking your act. So get off the X-Box and do the research first…it will increase your odds of success. And please stop asking others to do this work for you.
Fourth, partnering with other acts and “gig swaps.” Rule one to understand is that most acts that are headlining at the Fox or the Bluebird don’t necessarily have the power or control to pick the other acts on the bill. So when you call Leftover Salmon and say ‘we’d love to open for you’ it most likely has nothing to do with them as to who else is on the bill – it is up to the promoter. Why is that the case? Because the promoter’s job is to put “butts in the seats” and if your act has played a Thursday night with three other bands at Lion’s Lair you may not have the drawing power to open for an act at the Gothic. This is true of the DJ world too. Now that you understand that – you know NOT to take it personally when somebody says – ‘we don’t have any say in that.’ Now you are equipped to start asking. You have the right attitude and the ability to sell yourself as strong as you can and do the networking that is necessary to get the most out of this important tactic. As far as the ‘gig swap’ goes – it’s a great way to have a band with a good following in (say Omaha) come to Colorado and play a gig with you to help them build their market in Denver and then you go to Nebraska and do a gig with them to help build your following there. That’s a “gig swap.” It is a very cool way to break out of this market and bring new artists into this market. And Colorado is considered ‘hot’ by most other cities in the country as a live music market.
Fifth, understand timing. The other problem that I deal with on a weekly basis is great young artists who have all there poop-in-a-group but don’t understand the timing factor. This is January 2015. Both AEG and Live Nation have about 95% of their summer season already booked! The Dicken’s Opera House in Longmont is booking April. The headliners for the Taste of Colorado are already contacted and the side stages will book in May. Every festival, concert series, venue and/or promoter has a timing schedule that they work with. If you are pretty sure you are going to have your album ready for release February 15th you will not find a place to play on February 20th. Part of your research needs to be the realization of what each “buyer” of talent uses as their scheduling and booking policy. It doesn’t mean they don’t have holes in the calendars that they just can’t seem to fill – and it is possible that you will get that February 20th date – but it’s unlikely (it’s a Friday night). On the other hand they may have the 18th open and that might work. So be persistent but understand that you are asking them to “invest” in your act and that they are not concerned with bringing great new music to their venue so much as they are concerned with staying in business by bringing the BEST MUSIC into their calendar that will put butts in the seats – and who’s fans will drink! In case you didn’t know it – it’s the booze money that keeps everybody at the venue paid – not the $10 door ticket.
If you’re thinking this is a hell of a lot of work, you got it. A great Tour Manager in town named Devon Hand calls it “The Grind” and I have never heard a better term for it. You have to be doing it every week along with the marketing of the shows, development of show and the music, and the strategy for the next level of gigs. Whether you are doing DJ work for an EDM show for your school or friends or your bluegrass band is playing at the local grange hall you have to do all the daily things involved in doing the grind AND keep an eye on the future. And that brings me to booking agents. Here is the simple rule. They are not going to be interested in you until you are doing all this to a point where you are creating your own success. Once you are doing that, then they have something to build on. That is how they make their money…by taking you from the level you are on now – to the next level. Booking agents make their money on how much they can get for your act. In the “old days” of the 1980’s there were about 10 venues along the Front Range that “played” bands for six nights a week. Bands worked 300 nights a year and their shows got really good really fast or they went out of business. They built followings really quickly (six months to a year). If you only play 12 times in six months you are going to find it hard to build the kind of fan base that interests a booking agent. The internet is an incredible tool in compensating for this. It can help. But agents look for success. More on this next month.
Category: Shop Talk
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