3 of 11: The Booking Agents (Part of a Series About the Live Music Business)

#musicbusiness #livemusic #bookingagents
I tell you about the booking agents in this video - what they do, how they make money, and who they are.
Knowing about the work of the booking agents will make it easier for you to understand how the live music business works.
Find out more about concert production and the live music business in the rest of the series here on CZcams. I have also written a book, 'The Live Music Business', which has more details. Read about the book here: amzn.to/3u4vjkY😃
**Coda Agency eventually became Paradigm Talent Agency after the making of this series**
LINKS:
Pollstar: www.pollstar.com/
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency by James Andrew Miller amzn.to/2Y3Djgp
A list of booking agencies:
The Pollstar Booking Agency Directory 2018 Summer Edition lists 640 worldwide booking agents. These range from the multi-national, 'full-service' agencies, such as Endeavor and CAA, down to the tiny agencies who specialise in a genre, such as blues, or electronic music. The agencies listed below represent most of the artists in the Pollstar Top 100 tours - in 2014, they represented 72 of the TOP 100 tours!:
Creative Artists Agency www.caa.com
Endeavour www.wmeentertainment.com
Artists Group International www.artistgrp.info
United Talent Agency www.unitedtalent.com
Paradigm www.paradigmagency.com
Howard Rose Agency (no website!)
Major booking agents in the UK include:
Primary Talent primarytalent.com
ITB www.itb.co.uk
X-Ray Touring xraytouring.com
MN2S mn2s.com
Little Big www.lb-agency.net
FMLY fmly.agency

[@VioletRobots]

Cool video brother. Thank you.

[@Livemusicbusiness]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Livemusicbusiness]

Thank you for watching! Find out more about concert production and the live music business in my book, 'The Live Music Business': amzn.to/3u4vjkY😃

[@JacobSoucy]

awesome, can't wait for the next one!

[@rickflippin1]

Good stuff had to sub thanks

[@beforeau]

Where can I learn more about it ? Any 2024 version for Techno and House music bookings?

[@Livemusicbusiness]

You must have read my mind! I am currently researching and starting writing on 'the live music business for electronic music artists'. I don't know when all this will be ready
Drop me a line with your questions in the meantime: [e-mail]
Thanks for watching!

[@theselector4733]

Hi I've watched this video and the one on concert promoters and it's probably raised more questions than answered.
In my experience as a working musician, there seems to be a "blurry line" between some booking agents and promoters, in my experience anyway.
For example on several occasions I've approached venues for work, either for my 4 piece band or solo, and venues will either say yes you can speak to the manager OR will say "you need to contact our booking agency". Sometimes when contacting the outside booking agent, they will say "yes the booker for that venue is so and so" and will either mention the manager for the venue or another booking agent. Most Booking Agents I've worked with (as a covers band) only deal with venues, in other words they're a go between linking the artist to the venue BUT they are not exclusively working for the artist. Very rarely have I come across a Booking Agency that will ask for exclusivity.
I've also organised my own shows where I've acted as both a Promoter (Promoting the show) and a Booking Agent (booking warm up bands etc....). There's a 3rd category for me anyway which is doing all the "hands on work" eg: Setting up the P.A., MC'ing, Finding Sponsorship, selling the tickets etc..... It's pretty tiring having to do everything yourself and performing as well.
So from what I can ascertain there are probably 4 distinct categories:
1/ Venue Managers/Bookers
2/ Outside Booking Agents that ONLY work for venues
3/ Outside Booking Agents that ONLY work for artists (and generally demand exclusivity)
4/ Booking Agents/Promoters (do both jobs)
Also, if you're a big name artist, say like Liam Gallagher or Ed Sheeran, can you chop and change booking agents at any time? Can any venues booking agent book you at any time eg: say the TRNSMT Festival in Scotland wants to book Liam Gallagher, do they contact his Agent or do they book him direct?

[@Livemusicbusiness]

Thanks for posting!
I’m sorry if the videos have confused you. I am presenting information about the contemporary live music business. This involves artists who perform their own material and are probably signed or ‘DIY/indie’ and have artist management and some form of income - probably from a publishing deal.
I have little knowledge of the covers/cabaret side of thing, and so I don’t cover that.
You are right when detailing the various ‘blurred lines’ when it comes to job roles in smaller capacity venues. The information I presented is the general overview of how concerts and tours get booked, and there are always variations on the theme.
Your list is also correct, and again there will be variations. Generally, the smaller the capacity, the more hats must be worn by anyone trying to make a success of live music at that venue.
Your questions:

[@LittleGeisha23]

Ok, I have a couple of artists who want me to book gigs for them. Is there some kind of central site where Hotels/Events/Private Parties, etc. can post when they want to book some new artists - so we can easily connect them?

[@Livemusicbusiness]

Gigmit and Gigmeister may offer what you are looking for. I hope this help?