Introduction to Booking

Booking is an annoying and thankless task best left to professionals. However, since this article is for bands that probably can’t get a pro booking agent to return their calls, you’ll probably have to do it yourself.

Here’s how booking works: You contact the venue, tell them about your band and beg for a gig. If they like what you’re doing, or figure you’re worth taking a shot on, they’ll book you. Sounds pretty simple, but sometimes it’s not. If you’re a new band, or new to the area (meaning you haven’t played a bunch of gigs in that town before) you need find the venues that have an audition night. It could be an open stage, or some kind of gloriously named showcase and it will probably be on an off night (Sun. – Weds. at most places) We know, your band is really hot and you deserve a headlining spot on a Friday or Saturday night. But the booking person you’re dealing with has never heard of you before and needs to be convinced that you’re for real. These people get contacted every day by new bands that think they are the hottest band ever. Very few live up their own hype. This is why venue booking people are notoriously difficult to get a hold of, or deal with, once you do. They deal constantly with people who, perhpas like you, don’t know the first thing about booking. (So it’s a good thing you are reading this.) They also deal with seasoned pros who know exactly what’s going on. Their job is tedious and annoying, so the less trouble you cause and the fewer stupid questions you ask, the better.

First, make sure your band is appropriate for the venue. If it’s jazz club, don’t try to book your metal band there and vice versa (at the same time be aware that clubs commonly experiment with different kinds of acts on different nights, hoping to find something that will bring in a crowd, so if you hear that a jazz club is now booking metal, it’s worth checking out.) Read our related article Know Your Genre. Next, check out their website. Most venues will have a way for new acts to get their info to the booking guy online. It may be a very elaborate form you have to fill out, or it may simply be an email address. Either way, pay careful attention to what they are asking for and provide that information. You will need to get them, at minimum, a bio, your genre and a sample of our music. A Myspace profile works well for this, but it’s not your only option. A professionally built website with the same info., or a Facebook profile with some tunes or video will work. Currently, Reverbnation.com and Sonicbids are also fairly popular. The point is that you need to provide the booking person with as much info. as needed to decide if they want to book you.

In the past, bands had to produce promo packs, which commonly included a one page bio., a CD (or cassette tape in the pre-CD era) a photo and some info like where your band has been playing in the past and what bigger bands you may have opened for. Additionally, reviews of your shows, music were commonly included. All the same stuff should be in your Myspace profile (or whatever you’re using). Be thankful you don’t have to print up all this stuff and mail it to a long list of venues.

Once you have submitted your material to the booking person, be patient. They might get back to you quickly, or it might take them weeks. It’s Ok to politely inquire a week later to make sure they got your stuff and have your contact information, and in case there are questions. But don’t be a pest! These are very busy people who are under a lot of pressure to book good bands that will fill the room. If they tell you that your act isn’t a good fit for their room, thank them for their time and move on to the next venue. If you piss off that booking person by calling them every day and insisting that your band is better than the hundreds of other bands in town, they might decide to screw you over and not book you at all. On the other hand, they do like to see new bands who are serious about playing and promoting themselves. It’s a fine line between being persistent and being a pest. Make sure they know how big your email list is (assuming it’s huge) and your relative popularity on the web. Most booking people have heard all kinds of crazy claims and they aren’t likely to believe any of it until you prove yourself.

Note: having 20,000 myspace friends is not going to impress any booking person. Having 200,000 plays of your song that’s on Myspace (or wherever) might impress them. However, if those listeners are 12 year olds living in another state, it’s not going to help you bring a crowd to any 21+ club, no matter where it is.

Once the booking person has decided to book your act, he will ask you if you’re available on certain dates. It’s a good idea to have some dates pre-cleared, meaning everyone in your band will definitely be available to play on those dates. Don’t assume anything. Once he has given you a date tell him you will have to confirm with the entire band just to be sure. Always check with everyone in the band about every date. You never know when someone will have some other unforseen commitment. Then, contact the booking person back and tell him you can do it for sure. You will also want to discuss payment and things like what time you go on and how long of set you will get, if there’s a sound check, etc. It’s best to understand all these things right off the bat so there is no confusion. If he sends you an email with the details forward that to all the other band members. Everyone will need to know these details, not just you. Most venues will follow up with you in the weeks before the show. This is to make sure you’re still there and the band hasn’t broken up or booked some other gig on the same night. Some venues will also want to you to come down and pick up promotional materials such as posters or tickets. Whatever it is they want you to do. Do it. It will count against you for future bookings if you don’t.

It’s good business, in this business, anyway, to turn down gigs that are offered to you for dates that you already have booked. Unless you’re being offered an opening slot for the Rolling Stones, you risk pissing off the booking guy at your local bread and butter venue by canceling a gig there to play another competing venue, even if it’s for more money. When it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, ok, go for it, but if it’s anything short of that, don’t. The time to play venues against each other is at the initial booking of the show, where you can possibly say something like: “The place down the street pays us twice that much, if you can’t match it, I’ll go play down there.” Just make sure you really have that other offer down the street, because if it’s bullshit, the booking person will probably know and call your bluff.

If you need to cancel for any reason, please let the booking person know as soon as possible, so he can fill the slot with another act. One sure fire way to make sure your band never plays that venue again is to pull a no show, no call. Everyone has emergeniecs or other unexpected stuff happen. If you can’t make the gig and have a legitimate reason for it, let them know. Some will be forgiving and try to re-book you for another date. If your reason for canceling is lame or not believable, they will smell it a mile off and probably treat you like shit. Expect it. If you make their life difficult by canceling at the last minute, they aren’t going to appreciate it and they might not want to deal you ever again.

I advise new bands to play a wide variety of venues, as many as you can find in your market and then go back to those where things worked out well. It’s not unusual for one band to do well in some venues and not as well in others. Don’t let a bad gig get you down. Just try some other venues and keep trying to improve your act and promotional activities until you find the right place(s) for your band. This may be especially important for bands that cross genres. Maybe you’re kind of jazzy and funky. You might not do well in a serious jazz venue, but you might do great in a venue where people like to dance to funky rhythms. Or maybe for your act it will work the other way around.

DON’T lie to the booking agent. Don’t promise him your band can bring 200 people to the club, just because you have 200 facebook friends. The best thing a new band can do is promise to work all your friends and family and whoever else you can, to come to the show. Then do it. If your music is good and there’s a decent turnout, you’ll be considered for another booking. If nobody shows, after your grandiose claims and extensive bragging about how great your act is, you’ll be breanded as a liar and they aren’t going to want to deal with you again. Even a couple years later when you really do have a good following, that same booking guy will remember how you screwed him over last time, and he’s not as likely give you another shot. It’s much better to be honest and give it a good try. If he can see that you worked it really hard, but had a poor turnout, he’s more likely to give you another shot down the road.

What is the booking agent looking for? Unfortunately, it’s not always about the music. Commonly it’s about selling beer. Please read our article It’s About Selling Beer and the related articles: Battles of the Bands and Showcases