Who operates at a massive loss - the band or the promoter? Surely someone has to?
© DrownedinSound.com | From the Archive - The Late Review (aka albums we should have covered weeks ago but didn't, in a single article)
Who operates at a massive loss - the band or the promoter? Surely someone has to?
...
Generally they both do.
depends what they're wanting...
A tiny band doing a UK tour might only need to cover fuel costs.
depends
if its a tour or a one off...
sometimes a label will pay airfare and the band will sort trasport/accom etc....if they borrow equipment etc.........depends if you offer them an unrealistic guarantee....
and flights.
and visas.
and food.
and accomodation.
and maybe kit rental or freighting.
i'd say it's the band that loses most.
I can live with that
Ok, well i meant flights in the fuel part i guess.
But food accommodation shouldn't be an issue. Whoever is putting the the show on should be able to provide a free floor somewhere, as well as some cheap meals.
Natch
natch?
Naturally
<3
The Question
Is far to open ended to answer.
Label's a contracted to pay tour support, usually. There'll be a figure in the contract.
They will top up the money on top of your fees to help you tour. The idea being it helps you get to the point where you're sustainable.
Our booking agent is always suprised my band makes money touring... but I'm always suprised at how much people manage to spend doing it.
Buy a van, get in it.
tooooo
toooooooo not to. duh
Hmm
Okay, thanks. It's an open-ended question because it's kind of an open-ended situation at the moment. But I'm excited and it's hopefully going to happen so I thought I might as well get a bit of info in advance.
Good
attitude. What's your band called?
Brandt Snediker
who
are you bringing over to tour?
Tiger Bear Wolf, hopefully
http://www.myspace.com/5450573
They've asked me if I know of any resources to help them plan a tour, which I don't because I've put on one gig ever and am generally quite ignorant about these things, so if anyone could help out with that, that would be awesome.
i could give you some help
re: finances. im doing it as a university course, and it would be beneficial to me to do some work. i would be happy to plan income and expenditure for them, which is often overlooked and extremely important
oh sweet!
they're awesome. get another hello sir band to come with them. doesn't matter who, they're generally all amazing.
I saw Little Wings in Oxford last year...
... The entry was £3.50 (I think), there were 2 other bands, and there was a total of about 20 people in the audience, of whom 8 turned out to be in the other bands. He did a wonderful job, but it was heartbreaking to see the lack of support. I have no idea how these gigs make money. I mean, even someone as well known as Jim White only attracted about 150 people, and the tickets (in Oxford) were less than a tenner.
Buy the merch, people! If the gig's good, it's the best way to reward the artist (isn't it?).
...
The reason for this is most gigs are promoted by Metropolis, Sjm, Channelfly etc etc... These companies do the same as labels... they take a knock on things because they make such a vast profit on other things. They can afford to pay a band a guarantee of 300 and know they're not gonna cover their costs because they know that they get the major artists from the same agents roster and make a fuck load of cash off them. They also speculate to accumulate by losing money on acts early on in the hope that if they do go big, they will be the promoter for the show the next time.
I
have a question that's sort of related...
Are booking agents paid a flat fee by the band/label, or do they take whatever extra they can get on top of a set fee, or a percentage of what they can get as a fee?
They usually take a percentage of the fee
I guess it varies, but I suspect this is generally the case. When I booked an act with one agent they asked me to send x amount of money to them, then pay the rest to the artist on the night.
Agents
They take 10% of the artists fee.
If the fee is large or you are an unknown promoter to them, you pay 50% in advance and 50% on the night. If it's small fees (anything under 500) then they don't usually ask for a deposit if they know you.
University courses don't teach shit about music. You either need to work in the industry or tour shit loads.
I can vouch for the second part of what you said
I try to avoid booking agents if I can. Everything seems easier booking a gig when booking agents aren't involved.
promoting is hard work!
so is being in a band sometimes...
but...this might help...
where i work we supply the listings to Guardian, Metro, Independent and a bunch of websites and other papers etc...
If you email your gigs to
gigs@pa-entertainment.co.uk with at least 3 weeks notice you should get listed in quite a few places...
you need to put...
venue name, full address (inc full postcode!), number for public to call, date, time, price, band (s) plus a wee bit of info about each band.
it's free! hurray!
xx
That is very useful
Thank you :)
no worries...
another thing when you get a band from the states over is sometimes if they're dead little if you can find other promoters who might wanna book them it'll help them get a tour going - sometimes they just wanna come and play and the more gigs you can help them get the better - it's kinda just like a holiday for them where they play (some bands anyway...). Where do you promote? i help promote in Bath (purr) - more gigs in Autumn hopefully!
xx
also in this situation
it may help if you have a friendly record store where you can try and sort the band out with a little instore-pre show- its like an add for the gig and they might sell a couple of cds to make it worth it....
Also worth contacting local/internet radio peeps if you know them - the more you can offer them in terms of promo the better i guess.
Some agents are good- some are very poor. In one case we made a loss on a band who we supported when they were pulling 20-30 people , we did their first shows and put them on every time they came for three years. Then they got a 'big' agent and he wouldnt work with us. I bumped in to them later and they were really pleased to see us...but didnt know that the agent had shafted us...so sometimes it can be a heartbreaker. You just do it for love and try not to lose money....if you want to make money...be a 'big agent' for a 'big' company...