Music Shows

KC & The Sunshine Band

KC and The Sunshine performer is one of the most recognizable names from the disco era of the 1970s. Throughout their career, KC and The Sunshine performer culminated a total of nine Grammy nominations, winning three of them, including two for KC and The Sunshine Band’s work on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, and an American Music Award as well.

Along with the Beatles, KC and the Sunshine band were the first artists to have four #1 singles in the span of one year: “Boogie Shoes“, ” Rock n Roll Your Baby”, “Get Down Tonight”, and ” That is The Way (I prefer It)”. KC & The Sunshine Band’s other hits prefer “(Shake, Shake, Shake), Shake Your Booty” and ” I am Your Boogie Man” still stand as milestones of the disco age now.

With KC & The Sunshine Band’s funky and vibrant tones, the brass oriented disco flavor that made up KC and The Sunshine Band’s sound likewise in company d Motown, Funk, Latin percussion, Caribbean spice, Southern soul, as well as pop hooks which developed their sound. KC & The Sunshine band still tour and perform now.

Today, KC and The Sunshine performer are still touring the world bringing to audiences the sensation and flavor which they’re known for.

Booking Entertainment is there to help you book KC & The Sunshine performer for your next parties. You simply fill out a form and Booking Entertainment will handle all the necessaries to offer you with the greatest experience expected whether it’s a concert or a private event.

There are several diverse categories of deals when it comes to booking your band for a show.

1) Door/ Percentage of Door

2) Guarantee

3) Combination of Guarantee + Door

4) 80/20 split

1) When you’re just starting out this is could going to be the the majority common deal you’ll see. You can be wondering why I did not mention FREE. Never is there a reason to performance for free, unless it is for charity or a cause of some kind, in which case the organizer for that show ought to at the least cover all of your costs and rentals that you can need for the show, getting to the show, food and drinks at the show. As an artist playing live you’re trying to get your name out there but more vital ly you’re selling a service.  promoters and club owners hire you and your performer members to draw people into their establishment so that they can sell beer, food and other drinks to the patrons. With larger shows the  promoter is trying to sell tickets as well as make a cut of the food and drink sales, but we’ll get into that later. For small shows it is could the owner of the club /bar or a  promoter that works internally that’s employing you, so their main concern ought to be trying to sell booze and food.

In this case, in my opinion, there should be no reason for them to take a cut of the admission to get into the show. You should be able to mutually agree on a “door price” so that it is not too high that it will drive customers away, but enough that you may justify being there. Every now and then the owner will say that he needs to take a cut of the door to cover some of the costs of the club or for whatever reason. Although I would ofttimes disagree with this but when you’re just starting out and trying to build a fan base every now and then you’ve to accept this kind of thing in order to get some exposure. Once you’ve a dedicated fan base that will show up to your shows ofttimes then you may tell the owner that you’re bound to bring in a certain number of people and that you deserve the entire door or to split the door with the rest of the musicians on the bill. Assuming that the owner is still not willing to relinquish his clutch on the door cover you may want to consider switching club s. It may be a wonderful sign to your fan base that will see the move a step up in your career.

In fact,in this form of negotiation it will be in the owner’s perfect interest to have the entry fee be little or zero as this will allow for passers by to stroll in when they hear the music. If the se possible patrons find out there is a cover to get in they may not want to drop the cash. If the  promoter is exceedingly concerned about the cover price being too high you may want to discuss the possibility of a guarantee.

2) Guarantee is where you want to be. When still playing the indie circuit this is the easy st way to book a show. All guarantee means is that the  promoter or venue owner guarantees to pay the artist a  set amount for the night. In this situation there is never an argument about how much was made at the door, and for the the majority part, never an argument about expenses. The  promoter books the band for say $100.00 to play and the rest is up to the band to deal with. This way, as an artist, you know exactly what you’re going to be making and could plan your expenses appropriately. When doing a door show there are a lot of variables including expenses to get to the gig, sound engineer, gear and then the biggest variable, THAT individuals show up ! If nobody shows up to a door gig you do not make any resources and all expenses are out of pocket. When doing a guarantee there are still variables but at least there is no variable of individuals. Either the  promoter is counting on individuals walking by to come in and have a drink or is doing their level optimum to sell tickets for the show. All you’ve to worry about in this situation is showing up on time, sounding the optimum you could during the sound check, making a final ing impression on the  promoter and doing what you do optimum… blowing the audiences away.

3) The next perfect thing to having a show that pays a guarantee is having a show that pays both a guarantee and a bonus for the amount of people that show up. This is a rare case and may be a excellent deal, but on occasion this doesn’t work to your favor.  promoters who are looking to save some resources will try to book performers with a smaller guarantee and a cut of the door or ticket sales. This may not be as wonderful because it doesn’t “guarantee” you an amount, nonetheless if you are expecting a large crowd to this show or are able to get a wonderful buzz going, this may be the way to go.

4) The 80/20 Spl it is a common deal when you have a booking agent and are playing large shows. 80/20 splits are al the majority always booked by an outside  promoter or an organizer for an event. The deal is unusually similar to a guarantee, the only difference occurs when the  promoter breaks even with his costs. The way it breaks down, the  promoter lays out all costs on his part such as security, Club rental, advertising, cost for printing tickets, food and drinks for performer and crew, gear rental, and all other costs for putting on the show. The  promoter additionally includes a 10  percent  promoter cost to pay himself and a guarantee for the band. Once all of these costs have been met from ticket sales, the remainder is profit and that’s where the split comes in. And can be to your surprise, as it was to mine, it is spilt 80  percent to the musician 20  percent to the  promoter. This is al the majority a glorified guarantee and door deal except the musician gets 80  percent of the ticket sales once all costs are covered. All performers hope to get themselves here one day as this is the the majority profitable concert deal, the only downside is by the time you get to this point there are usually multiple other hands in your pot such as musician managers, booking agents and sometimes record businesses. It is difficult when you’re an musician in demand to stay on top of your own affairs, and the more in demand you become the more you will find yourself neglecting other parts of your job as an artist. At this time you should think about giving away a piece of your pie in order to be able to focus on the parts of your career that are the majority important to you. Nonetheless, all of us will get into this at a later point in much more detail.

Here is a standard breakdown of negotiations. The  promoter is going to want something specific from the artist, the majority of the time this to have the performer to play for as little money as possible. The performer furthermore wants something, regularly to play for as much money as possible or for as a lot of people as possible. The way that standard negotiations work is that both get togethers are going to try to get as much as they may of what they want. In order to do so, both get togethers are going to ex vary other points of the deal to trade for things that they want. So your task in order to prep for negotiating with a  promoter or a venue owner is to evaluate what you want out of this show in a best world (these are called deal points) and rate each deal point in order of importance to you as an artist/band. If money is the the majority vital thing in this show for you then that’s what you are going to be after and may have to give up other deal points in order to get more of what you want. In a situation where the  promoter is willing to give you a  set amount say $100.00 for the show and 5 free tickets to invite whomever you want, but you are playing in a city where you do not know anyone, you may ask the  promoter to cash those tickets at price back to him. If each ticket is $10.00 then it would be reasonable to ask the  promoter for a $150.00 guarantee with no tickets.

For an opposite situation where resources isn’t that necessary to you and exposure in this new town can be a higher priority, you can want to ask the  promoter to pay you $50.00 for the night and get 10 tickets, and invite members of the Regional press or can be some record label representatives to attend for free to expose your music to them in hopes you can get on their show or reviewed in their newspaper/magazine.

Decide what you and your band mates find are necessary to you for this specific show and fight for those points. A master negotiator knows how to get everything that they want and giving up uncommonly little of what they have. You’ve to learn what you think will be necessary to the  promoter and what isn’t so necessary to you and use those points to trade for what you want. likewise, attitude with negotiations is half the game. If the  promoter feels that the deal points you are giving away are not necessary to you, then he/she may not feel it to be an adequate trade for something that they do find necessary to them. You need to give the impression that everything that you are trading away is uncommonly necessary to you. Make a extensive deal. Make them feel prefer they stole it away from you. Another approach is that you make the  promoter feel prefer you are doing them a favor. This approach may either work well or back fire and make you feel stupid. If the  promoter has any brains he knows what is necessary to you and what’s not. If you try to tell him that you are going to ” endorse him out” or give him the whole “I’lltell you what” line, then you better be giving him something worth his while. Otherwise he will not be fooled and will ask for much more from you then you may be willing to give up.

Understand that in practicing negotiations you are might going to blow a couple of deals. If you push things too far, the  promoter might get sick of getting nowhere and book another band. Unfortunately this is going to happen. This is great time to practice another, al most more vital skills when dealing with the music industry, DAMAGE CONTROL. No matter where you are in your career things are going to go wrong, that’s just a fact of life. Issues will arise and you’ll have to recover from mistakes. Being able to fix your issues or at least make the most of a bad situation is a wonderful skill to have and sign of a great business man. In a case when you have pushed a  promoter too far you might have to apologize and make up a story of how you had been dicked around by another  promoter and has been just being careful. Whatever the excuse can be, there is frequently a way to increase the situation as long as you haven’t burned the bridge completely.

In the same breathe I am going to reiterate something that I said in the final podcast. If you find that you are giving up too much in the deal or the deal is just not sounding as promising as it once was, get out. Yes, on occasion you need to give a little to get a little, but you can’t let  promoters step all over you. If you are not getting what you feel that you deserve, make a statement and tell the  promoter that you are no longer interested because you are not one to be taken advantage of. Advise the  promoter that If they wish to renegotiate they have your number. One of two things will happen, either the  promoter will look for another band who will quietly accept what you refused to, or they will come to their senses, give you a call and try to work something new out. Assume they will not call you back.

Well that about does it for booking. If you have any questions or a situation that you can be in that you would like us to comment on, send us a message in our contact section and all of us will either email you back or mention it in the next podcast.

You have brought together three or four of the optimum musicians in town, and they’re jamming to your tunes. You have spent days and evenings writing and rewriting lyrics, and you have been working hard to optimum your sound. Finally, following many months of practice, you are ready to reap the advantages of your hard work. But how do you begin?

As a new band, the idea of booking your first show may prove to be a daunting task. However, it doesn’t have to be. By following these easy steps, you may turn a apparently overwhelming process into a productive one.

Making sure that the members of the performer are all on the same page is an essential 1st step in the booking process. Agree on a number of concert per month that everyone will play. Put together a performance of your optimum songs and make a demo. Your demo ought to not include full-length songs ; several short snippets of your strongest material will showcase your band’s strengths and will sell your performer to potential Clubs with little or no quest. With your demo, include a photo of the band, a short statement about the music or genre that the performer plays, and your contact information, including the band’s web site. Decide what Clubs you’re interested in playing and how much you’ll charge them for playing, if anything. Getting these details out of the way early will create wonderful communication among the performer members, thus avoiding misunderstandings in the future.

Next, do your research. Scope out the Local/Regional scene; find out who your competition is, which artists performance where, what Venues cater to your specific sound, and who your target audiences is. Talk to seasoned Local/Regional acts; a number of times times, your fellow artists will be your optimum sources of information. Getting to know your competition, your audiences and your Local/Regional scene will prove to be an indispensable tool when you are selling yourself to venue owners and booking agents. additionally, be open to anything. Limiting yourself to venues and bars will hinder your occasions of booking your band. Find out about open-mic nights in your area, offer to open for other artists for free and find out about Local/Regional fairs and festivals where your performer might get some exposure.

When you are out and about checking out potential Venues, ask for the names of the people responsible for booking performers at that location. Get their contact information and keep track. Use all of your contacts and, when calling them, be brief and to the point. Ask them If they have time to talk, and if not, when it would be a wonderful time to contact them. Ask for permission before submitting your demo. Be persistent, but not pushy, and realize that it will take some time to get that job. Once you do get the gig, be sure to discuss payment, if any, as well as what you will need to bring as opposed to what the Venue will offer. Be professional and be honest.

With determination, a little know-how, and some clever self-promotion, you may land that first show and be on your way to success in no time.

To most performers, the enduring image of an artist manager is a caricature of a heavy-set, unkempt slob of a man, stuffed into a 2-sizes-too-small, off-the-rack department retailer suit, chomping on a cheap smelly cigar while sliding a gr easy hand unceremoniously into the back pocket of a starving artist. Undoubtedly, somewhere in the vast landscape of the music universe, such malice exists. The vast majority of artist managers, however, are a motley collection of well-meaning, hardworking, selfless individuals struggling to make the dreams of a person they believe in come true.

For the legion of dedicated unbelievers out there, this is an article that attempts to shed light on the true benefit of an artist manager. Below are 8 reasons why a performer or artist needs a good manager:

1. Career Guidance – It is a number of times extremely c venue enging for performers to step back from the day-to-day activities and see the extensive picture (you know – the old ‘forest-for-the-trees’ thing). A knowledgeable manager might see how everything in the extensive picture fits together, and might advocate the performer navigate through the a number of times -confusing maze of activities that seem unrelated yet are all part of a massive jigsaw puzzle. The manager provides career guidance and advocates to session the overall game plan for the performer and the performers’ team to follow.

2. Cheerleading – Even though listeners are the central cheerleaders for an artist, someone has to communicate the same enthusiasm to the music business community. An musician manager will trumpet the artist’s message to record labels, booking agents,  promoters, media personnel, venue bookers, independent retail accounts, etc., in order to keep them all engaged and enthusiastic.

3. Prestige – According to most record industry professionals, there is something to be said about an artist that has a manager. The logic is that if an artist is good enough to attract management, there must be something of value present. In fact, most major labels refuse to sign an artist unless they have solid team (manager, attorney and publicist) in place. An artist in the absence of management is just too much drama! Labels would rather deal with a person who knows how the music business works and may make decisions on a non-emotional basis.

4. Buffer – A manager may act as an effective screening buffer between the artist and people that want to do business with the artist. This buffer tends to attract legitimate industry players while at the same time scaring away scam artists. There are no scarier words to a scam artist than “please talk to my manager”.

5. Time management – There simply is not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done in order to further the career of an artist. In betwixt writing songs, conducting interviews, designing artwork for compact disc’s and merchandise, managing a mailing list, filling out copyright paperwork, rehearsing with the band, employing and firing performers, updating performer web sites and MySpace.com profiles, getting pictures taken, shooting and editing DVD’s and YouTube videos, sending out packages and/or updating EPK’s, researching, repairing and buying equipment, etc., there isn’t time to furthermore craft a master game plan, solicit potential sponsorship partners, handle licensing requests, reach out to industry gatekeepers, attend industry networking get togethers, harass labels for tour aid, and so on. Some tasks may be delegated to the performer while others may be handled by the manager.

6. Accountability – Part of a manager’s job is to hold individuals accountable. What happens when the financial tour support that has been promised by the label fails to materialize? Or the check from the booking agent bounces? Or the FOH engineer at the show is MIA? Or the licensee fails to sign and return the contract but is using the artist’s songs anyway? Or the beer in the tour van vanishes? Somebody has to keep individuals honest, and that’s the majority appropriately the manager’s job.

7. Good Cop / Bad Cop – Need to fire the bass player but do not want to create an enemy? Let the manager performance bad cop and do the firing. Need to re-negotiate your contract and request more of a promotion budget? Let the manager performance good cop and keep a positive spin on the proceedings. There are plenty of chances when the musician and manager can trade off playing good cop / bad cop.

8. Sounding board – A manager, even though basic ally an “honorary member of the band”, is regularly on the outside looking in. Managers regularly see things varying ly than the artist, and can regularly offer varying perspectives, insights and results to problems the artist is encountering. Running suggestions by a knowledgeable manager prior to making decisions regularly allows for nice suggestions to become better and bad suggestions to be removed altogether from the to-do list.

So,there you’ve it! 8 nice reasons why an musician needs a manager. Having said all this, however, it’s necessary to note that having a bad manager is worse than having no manager at all.  Many wannabe managers think they can just “wing-it” with an artist, and continue to operate with the “lets-record-a-3-song-demo-and-shop-it-for-a-record-deal” mentality, even though the music industry continues to undergo significant vary s. New business models are emerging, and only those managers that stay at the leading edge of the learning curve will produce successful strategies and provide significant counsel to their clients.

The world wide Internet provides you a excellent occasion to showcase your music to everyone in the world without the expensive marketing strategies that major performers have at their disposal. But there are plenty of other performers out there that try to do the same thing. Having a excellent band website is a start, but do not stop once it is ready. To build an fans through the web, you need visitors. And that is only possible if individuals might find your website.

Be found via the search engines

If you’ve a nice and unique band name, chances are that your website will rank well in the search engines if individuals type in the band name. But do not forget that only individuals who know you will ever attempt to search for your band name. If you’re a band from Barcelona playing symphonic rock music, it would be great if your band website appears in the search results for the combined terms symphonic + rock + Barcelona. The more competition there is for these terms, the more difficult it becomes to get a nice position in the results and the more difficult it is to receive visitors.

How to enhance search engine ranking

Many search engines nowadays look at the keywords on your web site to decide for which terms it will be found. The actual ranking in the solutions list largely depends on how many other web sites are linking to yours, and links from important Web pages count heavier than links from less important pages. The search engines furthermore take a detailed look at the keywords present on the pages linking to your web site. How to use this to your advantage? spend enough time to get some links from other web site s, prefer entially in a listing accompanied by a description of your band. With a bit of patience, it will worth your ranking.

Where might I get my band web site listed?

There are many places on the Internet to  promote  your performer web site. You could ex differ links with the web site of a friend band. You could put a link in your signature if you participate in certain forums. On the other hand there are some dedicated directory web sites available where you could post information about your band, including a link to your performer web site. The way they’re organized makes it simple for individuals to find you, for example based on certain keywords or location. A great example is the European Music performer List , in which European Music Bands could create a free performer profile page.

The rewards of creating music range from the deep satisfaction of writing a new song to the glowing pride of a successful performance. These emotions bolster our confidence, but do little to compensate for the financial investment generally tied to making music. While selling your music via compact discs and downloads is a nice start, you ought to likewise contemplate investing in band merchandise to  promote  your band and cover the fee of instruments, rehearsal spaces, recording equipment and more.

In a Rolling Stone article (7/04), Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba spoke about the importance of merchandise: “Merch sales are what kept us going. Even now, we’re still not making our living from playing the shows. Merch is where we make our profit.” In that same story, John may er commented on merchandise sales and the current state of the recording industry: ” You’re not making that much money off records anymore, so until people may figure out how to make a re-writable Hanes Beefy-T, merch is one of the final bastions of individuality, commerce and style that an musician has left.”

Echoing those sentiments, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls related N Public Relations (1/17/07): “We make al the majority no money off our recordings themselves.” To earn a steady income, N Public Relations interviewer Chris Arnold noted that “The Dresden Dolls could take in more than $1,000 a night selling merchandise, which makes the ‘merch table’ a major source of income why they are on the road.”

While generating resources is the the majority undeniable benefit of performer merchandise, the valuable impressions made from exposure to potential listeners is just as necessary. Arming your current fan base with a fashionable marketing tool will only stimulate to  encourage  your performer and raise your profile. To this end, performers should take great care in creating logos and images that accurately reflects their sound and image while appealing to consumers. For inspiration, turn to Threadless.com for a broad  range of arresting designs. If you do not have the skills to create the design, try cutting expenses by recruiting a graphic arts student to handle the project for you.

Once the best design is approved, identify the medium that will give you the biggest return. A quick Google search found a wealth of organizations dedicated to meeting the merchandise needs of independent artists. Here are just several of the deals out there: 100 printed t shirts for $405 at WeNeedMerch.com,

500 1″ buttons for $100 at BusyBeaver.net, 250 5.5″ x 1.42″ stickers for $25 at StickerGuy.com and 100 posters for $175 at BandWear.com.

Selling your band merchandise may be done at live shows or Online via your Web site. Establish links at social music websites like Echoboost.com to draw more traffic and use gain payment services, such as PayPal, to handle the monetary transactions. Email fan club members when new products become available and try offer ing special packages, bundling your compact discs or downloads with t shirts, buttons and/or stickers to drive sales and spread the word about your music.

You should not let costs drain your passion for music. Put your music to work for you with your own merchandise and keep making the music you love.

No wonder we all seek to express ourselves in some way. To achieve success in music we need a band, as a solo career is no longer popular. And now you are betwixt decisions how to select the band members to share you dazzling ups.

Well, there are two ways out:

1.To involve professional musicians into the project and to divide obligations in advance. The only thing acquired is your own professional skills.

2.To surround yourself with deer friends and start following the path of studying altogether.

No matter which way you will go, just do not haste. It can happen the guitarist will tear a strip off or the drummer will misfit a drum session. It is no use shouting on them. all of us all make mistakes every now and then.

1st of all try studying few easy songs, prefer My Girl by Nirvana. But don’t jump into mastering jazz or grind core, as the Suicidal Tendencies, the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the Slipknot represent.

For joint work to be fruitful enough, you should organize rehearsals into two parts, the way, one will be devoted to revising already studied songs and the other one will be used for improvisation, which is of a wonderful benefit, as the band members study to predict every next step of each other. Its’ you feeling every sense of music in the result. You can feel it is aliveness by letting it through your mind. But the primary thing isn’t to feel down in case everything isn’t as wonderful as you have imagined. It is much worse to loose pleasure in playing and creating music.

What concerns recommendations of experienced musicians, they’re worth listen to, however, keep it in mind, it’s up to you, which of them to select to follow.

If your band is in rehearsals, either getting prepared for gigging, or practising new tunes to add to your repertoire, the chances are you’ll have to hire a rehearsal room. The expenses of employing a room may soon mount up if you do not organize your time effectively. You may be has been ting time and resources going around in circles, with a increasing frustration that your band doesn’t seem to be making any progress.

The answer is to  set a Schedule for your rehearsals. in the absence of a schedule it’s c venue enging to monitor progress if in fact any is made. Disorganized rehearsals might soon turn into chaos, with everyone throwing in ideas and playing diverse things at the same time. The rehearsal isn’t the time for your guitarist to hone his right hand tapping skills, or your drummer to perfect his lightning fast paradiddles, it’s valuable time for working together as a band, and ought to be used as such. band members ought to have their personal private schedules for practising instruments and learning new techniques. During a rehearsal you ought to all be working towards the same goal and making each other sound as wonderful as possible. The rehearsal ought to never turn into a ‘who might performance the loudest’ competition.

What should your schedule consist of?

Set goals for your rehearsal times and WRITE THEM DOWN! You should know which songs you are going to rehearse in advance. If you have planned your strategy, you will avoid getting stuck in a rut and your time will be used constructively. songs you already know may be perfected and the little nuances worked on, stamping your own identity on cover songs and putting the finishing touches to originals.

You should make a list of ‘finished’ tunes, ‘work in progress’ tunes, and ‘new ideas’. As each one progresses, move it up into the next category, thereby revising the schedule for your next rehearsal.

I would suggest starting with 2 or 3 tunes you are happy and comfortable with, simply to give the performer a positive vibe to build on, and then start work on new numbers. performance aside a certain amount of time for each song, and then move on! Don’t was te time trying to perfect something that just isn’t working, you could come back to it later or at the next rehearsal. perfect the numbers that do work, and you’ll see positive determinations as your repertoire builds up considerably.

Always take regular breaks. Coming back to a number that has been n’t going too well with fresh ears may often be all it needs to make a distinct improvement. If that does not advocate, there’s no point in flogging a dead horse, so move it to the bottom of the list or contemplate dropping the song altogether and concentrating on another one.

Work on performer dynamics and expression, i.e. fast, slow, loud, and quiet. Get your fills as tight and as fluent as possible. What you’re working on is that elusive ‘feel’ that is the club mark of a nice band. Everybody should not only be playing his/her own instrument, but likewise actively listening to the rest of the band.

Tape your rehearsal. You don’t need any fancy recording equipment – a simple tape deck and mic will be sufficient. The idea is simply for the performer to be able to listen to their efforts following wards. Listening to a song while you’re not playing means you might listen more subjectively and discuss the merits. Take notes while you listen, that way you’re already forming the schedule for the next rehearsal.

And finally, recall ; you are in a band! As such, the sum of the parts should be greater than the individual contribution.

You have brought together three or four of the perfect musicians in town, and they’re jamming to your tunes. You have spent days and evenings writing and rewriting lyrics, and you have been working hard to perfect your sound. Finally, after a lot of months of practice, you’re ready to reap the rewards of your hard work. But how do you begin?

As a new band, the idea of booking your first gig may prove to be a daunting task. However, it doesn’t have to be. By following these easy steps, you may turn a apparently overwhelming process into a productive one.

Making sure that the members of the band are all on the same page is an essential first step in the booking process. Agree on a number of shows per month that everybody will play. Put together a session of your perfect tunes and make a demo. Your demo ought to not include full-length tunes ; a few short snippets of your strongest material will showcase your band’s strengths and will sell your band to potential Venues with little or no effort. With your demo, include a photo of the band, a short statement about the music or type of that the band plays, and your contact information, including the band’s website. Decide what Venues you are interested in playing and how much you will charge them for playing, if anything. Getting these details out of the way early will establish wonderful communication among the band members, thus avoiding misunderstandings in the future.

Next, do your research. Scope out the Regional scene; find out who your competition is, which performers play where, what Clubs cater to your particular sound, and who your target audiences is. Talk to seasoned Regional acts; oftentimes times, your fellow performers will be your perfect sources of information. Getting to know your competition, your audiences and your Regional scene will prove to be an indispensable tool when you’re selling yourself to club owners and booking agents. also, be open to anything. Limiting yourself to clubs and bars will hinder your chances of booking your band. Find out about open-mic evenings in your area, provide to open for other performers for free and find out about Regional fairs and festivals where your band may get some exposure.

When you’re out and about checking out potential Venues, ask for the names of the individuals responsible for booking artists at that location. Get their contact information and keep track. Use all of your contacts and, when calling them, be brief and to the point. Ask them Assuming that they have time to talk, and if not, when it would be a wonderful time to contact them. Ask for permission before submitting your demo. Be persistent, but not pushy, and realize that it will take some time to get that job. Once you do get the gig, be sure to discuss payment, if any, as well as what you will need to bring as opposed to what the Venue will provide. Be professional and be honest.

With determination, a little know-how, and some clever self-promotion, you could land that 1st gig and be on your way to success in no time.

To the majority artists, the enduring image of an musician manager is a caricature of a heavy-set, unkempt slob of a man, stuffed into a 2-sizes-too-small, off-the-rack department store suit, chomping on a cheap smelly cigar while sliding a gr simple hand unceremoniously into the back pocket of a starving artist. Inevitably, somewhere in the vast landscape of the music universe, such malice exists. The vast majority of musician managers, however, are a motley collection of well-meaning, hardworking, selfless individuals struggling to make the dreams of a person they believe in come true.

For the legion of dedicated unbelievers out there, this is an article that attempts to shed light on the true worth of an musician manager. Below are 8 reasons why a band or musician needs a good manager:

1. Career Guidance – It is usually extremely difficult for artists to step back from the day-to-day activities and see the extensive picture (you know – the old ‘forest-for-the-trees’ thing). A knowledgeable manager can see how everything in the extensive picture fits together, and can stimulate the musician navigate through the usually -confusing maze of activities that seem unrelated yet are all part of a massive jigsaw puzzle. The manager provides career guidance and stimulates to session the overall game plan for the musician and the artists’ team to follow.

2. Cheerleading – Even though audiences are the central cheerleaders for an artist, an individual has to communicate the same enthusiasm to the music business community. an artist manager will trumpet the artist’s message to record labels, booking agents,  promoters, media individual nel, venue bookers, independent retail accounts, etc., in order to keep them all engaged and enthusiastic.

3. Prestige – According to the majority record industry professionals, there is something to be said about an artist that has a manager. The logic is that if an artist is nice enough to attract management, there must be something of benefit present. In fact, the majority major labels refuse to sign an artist unless they have solid team (manager, attorney and publicist) in place. an artist in the absence of management is just too much drama! Labels would rather deal with an individual who knows how the music business works and can make decisions on a non-emotional basis.

4. Buffer – A manager may act as an effective screening buffer betwixt the artist and individuals that want to do business with the artist. This buffer tends to attract legitimate industry players while at the same time scaring away scam artists. There are no scarier words to a scam artist than “please talk to my manager”.

5. Time management – There simply is not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done in order to further the career of an artist. In betwixt writing songs, conducting interviews, designing artwork for compact disc’s and merchandise, managing a mailing list, filling out copyright paperwork, rehearsing with the band, employing and firing performers, updating performer web sites and MySpace profiles, getting pictures taken, shooting and editing DVD’s and YouTube videos, sending out packages and/or updating EPK’s, researching, repairing and buying equipment, etc., there isn’t time to likewise craft a master game plan, solicit potential sponsorship partners, handle licensing requests, reach out to industry gatekeepers, attend industry networking gatherings, harass labels for tour help, and so on. Some tasks can be delegated to the performer while others can be handled by the manager.

6. Accountability – Part of a manager’s job is to hold individuals accountable. What happens when the financial tour guide that was promised by the label fails to materialize? Or the check from the booking agent bounces? Or the FOH engineer at the show is MIA? Or the licensee fails to sign and return the contract but is using the artist’s tunes anyway? Or the beer in the tour van vanishes? Somebody has to keep individuals honest, and that is most appropriately the manager’s job.

7. Good Cop / Bad Cop – Need to fire the bass player but do not want to create an enemy? Let the manager play bad cop and do the firing. Need to re-negotiate your contract and request more of a promotion budget? Let the manager play wonderful cop and keep a positive spin on the proceedings. There are plenty of occasions when the performer and manager can trade off playing wonderful cop / bad cop.

8. Sounding board – A manager, even though standard ally an “honorary member of the band”, is a lot of the time on the outside looking in. Managers a lot of the time see things varying ly than the artist, and may a lot of the time offer varying perspectives, insights and solutions to problems the musician is encountering. Running pointers by a knowledgeable manager prior to making decisions a lot of the time allows for good pointers to become better and bad pointers to be removed altogether from the to-do list.

So,there you have it! 8 wonderful reasons why an musician needs a manager. Having said all this, however, it’s important to note that having a bad manager is worse than having no manager at all.  A lot of wannabe managers think they could just “wing-it” with an artist, and continue to operate with the “lets-record-a-3-song-demo-and-shop-it-for-a-record-deal” mentality, even though the music business continues to undergo serious vary s. New business models are emerging, and only those managers that stay at the leading edge of the learning curve will produce successful strategies and provide serious counsel to their clients.