Problems Booking Agents Will Face

I know not all of you booking agents are in it for the money. Most of you become a booking agent for the love of music and artistry alone. You see potential in particular artists and want to help see them succeed in the music industry, so you choose this as your career. It isn’t comfortable working for yourself and someone else — in fact, being a creative and a businessman is hard work, but is it worth it?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Helping an artist or artists in the industry isn’t like a regular 9–5, it takes hard work
• You won’t be working regular hours, in fact, you’ll be working hours on end.
• This will include sending out e-mails and calling people all day.
• Booking a tour isn’t AS easy as it seems
• Make sure the hard work and endless hours are worth it to you
• Not everyone in the industry is as they seem
• Although, you will meet many awesome people
• Be careful with who you work with and hoe you do things
• Find an artist or band who will respect you
• On that note, make sure they meet you halfway too
• Not everyone is your friend, so never take anything too personal

Being a booking agent isn’t an effortless career path, and there will be many obstacles along the way, but I guarantee you that if music and artistry is your passion then go for it! You’ll be surprised to see who appreciates your hard work, and how many connections you’ll make along the way of putting in countless hours. But keep in mind there are problems you will face as a booking agent, so take note of the things you may encounter below.

PROBLEMS YOU WILL FACE

• People won’t always come through, don’t expect too much all the time
• No matter who or how many times you call, you won’t always get a response
• Your artist or band will sometimes complain — so don’t take it personally
• You will get criticism along the way, take it as constructively as possible and move forward
• You will need to learn how to handle artists, not just businesspeople, venue owners, and managers
• It will take months, even years to build up the right connections, so patience is key
• Be responsible if a show fails, take ownership of the booking and learn from it
• People will get sick here and there, so learn how to work around that
• Not everyone in the industry is friendly, so you need to have thick skin.

As you can see above, the list seems somewhat harsh, but this is the reality. In this industry people will be blunt with you or throw shade on your name, so you might as well take notes here. I’m not saying that the industry is full of fakes and liars, but there are a lot of people who only care about themselves and making money. Don’t get discouraged though; you’ll meet a lot of reliable connections overtime and creative artists who are appreciative of your hard work.

If you surround yourself with the right people, tasks will still be time-consuming and laborious, but it’ll all be worth it. At times your job won’t even feel like a job once you’re used to it because it’ll come more natural and more manageable over time and the numerous amounts of people that you face and situations you’ll have to encounter will be rewarding because you made it all happen for your artist(s).

Professional Booking

At Gixtra we’re dedicated to improving the lives of booking agents. We created a tool for professional gig planning called Gixtra. You can learn more about Gixtra at app.gixtra.com.

This article by Daniela Campos originally appeared on the blog of the gig planning tool Gixtra as “Problems Booking Agents Will Face”.