If you're new to booking bands you may encounter venues who tell you they only use agents - or who "Prefer" to use agents to source their bands.

To be able to combat this you need to understand the main benefits venues get when booking bands via band agents.

The main attraction lies in "Reliability". Generally a venue will be live that if a band is supplied via an agent they'll be "better" or "more reliable" than one which is booked direct. This "More reliable" can also cover the "guarantee" of band booking itself. What I mean here is that when a venue makes a band booking via a band agency if the original band has to cancel, or suddenly becomes unavailable on the night in question most decent band agents will offer a replacement act as a substitute.

So how do you counter and overcome these potential objections a venue may have to booking bands directly?

1. Your Price

You can point out to the venue that you prefer to go out on the basis of direct bookings so that you can offer the best possible price to venues. There is no commission or additional fee charged to the venue on top of the band's fee as there would be with a band agency. You should therefore be able to offer a better deal to the venue.

2. Your "Network"

You can overcome any fear about what happens should you suddenly need to cancel any gig by assuring the venue you always work on the basis of having suitable substitute acts lined up for any band booking in the "unlikely event" of a problem on the night.

In order to do this of course, you'll need to cultivate a network of other bands in your area. ideally good bands, similar to your own in terms of genre but ones who are not yet gigging that frequently so they will be more likely to be available should you need them.

This exercise in itself can become a valuable source of additional new band bookings if and when you step in for another band - although of course you'll need to have short-notice availability to take advantage.

3. Direct Contact for the Band Booker

To anyone wanting to book a band for a private function (party, wedding, corporate event etc), they can benefit from a "direct" relationship with the band - rather than communicating via the band agents. You can talk to the person making the band booking about material, timings and such like rather than having communications going via a 3rd party (the band agent) and all the risks in misunderstanding that this can involve.

One final thought about booking bands in opposition to band agents. Some band agents do great jobs for their bands. Others not so. A couple of questions you might like to ask yourself about using band agents for your band bookings is this:

"Is this person/company likely to care as much about getting band bookings for us as we do ourselves? Will they be as passionate about our success with band promotion as we are?"

These were the questions I asked myself before realizing the DIY band booking route was the one for us

Adapted from Gig-Getter: How to Get more gigs than you can play Order eBook here

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