When your band gets to the point where you are on the road playing 100-150+ dates per year, self booking the entire tour can get too time consuming. Having a professional booking agent taking over handling the booking and business end of things will free up your time to actually play music. Now its time to learn how to find a booking agent.
Our band needs a booking agent, where do we start?
First things first, ask yourself if your band is ready for an agent. A booking agent for band is going to be looking for bands that have a long touring history, have played with national level touring bands, play at least 100+ shows a year, have albums sales, and most importantly have a solid draw in regional/nation markets. If you answered no to most of those questions, odds are your band isn’t quite ready for a professional agent. Of course, there are plenty of smaller agents around the country trying to break into the industry that are more than willing to take on smaller bands.
When it comes to selecting a booking agent, do your research. You want whatever booking agent you work with to already be working with like minded bands. If you play in a metal band, working with a booking agent that handles blues artists isn’t going to be a great match.
Some of the top booking agency’s around the country are:
– William Morris Agency
– The Agency Group
– TKO
– Paradigm Agency
We have a list of booking agents we want to work with:
Now is the time to create your 1-sheet/promo pack for the booking agent. This is very similar to our article on finding a record label. Create your promo pack so it includes all the info a prospective booking agent would need. Keep in mind, just like with record labels you really only get one shot to impress them.
– List all tours you have been on.
– Who you have played with (Only national-level bands, mentioning local bands won’t help you out).
– If you have an album released, mention what your sales are.
– List any markets or states you have played with your approximate draw.
– Mention if you have a manager, publicist, record label, etc.
We sent our 1-sheet to the booking agent, when should we follow up?
After you have sent out your 1-sheet to the booking agent, give them a few weeks to review your band and send an email following up. If you have any shows coming up in the agents area, or are playing with any of their bands in the future make sure to mention that in the follow up email.
If the first booking agent passes, keep playing hard, touring, and submitting to other booking agency’s. Eventually you will find the perfect fit.