Contemporary Music Instruction and Mentoring
How to Get Gigs
Some bands hire an agent to
do their booking, but in my experience those people charge
a lot of money and very seldom have the band's best
interests at the top of their agenda. In a best case
scenario, they will not force you to be exclusive with
them, and they will charge you a fee of about 20% of the
total payment you receive any time they book a gig
for you, and nothing if you book a gig for
yourself. In a worst case scenario, they force you
to sign your life away to them and they will get to tell
you what gigs you can and cannot do. (For example,
after her performance in the finals of America's Got
Talent, Kenadi Dodds signed with an agent who lied to her
virtually every single week for the entire two years of
the contract, did absolutely NOTHING to help her get a
single performance, nor to help her get a band or get
publicity or anything else, forbade her to accept nearly
every gig she found herself, and would not allow her to
release any of her original songs or music videos online
that she had spent so much time and money creating.
She also tried to force Kenadi to wear less modest
clothing and to do other things that were against her
family and religious standards.) Either way, agents
are expensive, and you can bet there are other acts they
represent that they will put ahead of you, every time.
So for 99% of musicians, you are better off just booking gigs yourself. It is hard work, and it is frustrating and discouraging at times, but it is do-able, and you'll do better at it than an agent because nobody else cares as much about getting gigs for you as you do.
In most of the bands I’ve ever been in, I have been the band member who did the vast majority of the booking. That’s because I like to play, and if I didn’t do it, we’d never play. That’s just the honest truth. And the other members of my bands will admit that. In Relic, Fender Benders, and nearly every other act I perform with, 95% of the gigs we have played have resulted from me sending out emails, calling people on the phone, and pitching my act in person. Is it worth it? Absolutely yes. Because I love gigging. And I have learned that the more you play, the more you play. Only by getting out there and playing do people hear you, ask for your business card, and then call to ask you to play for them. You can have a great web site or social media account, but until you are actually gigging, very few gigs will come to you.
It is a tough business that has only gotten tougher during my lifetime. When I was in high school in the early 1970s, a live band played at every formal dance, plus a couple of "stomp" dances a year. Having a DJ play records would have been unthinkable. Likewise for university dances, church dances, Institute dances, and corporate parties. Additionally, live music was strongly preferred for weddings if the parents of the bride could afford it. My band in the early 1980s played an average of four dances per month, pretty much split evenly between school, corporate, and church dances.
Today, people don't even seem to want live music. It is astonishing to me when I offer to play a wedding for free or for a greatly reduced price for the family of a relative, friend, or student, and they turn me down. These days, it is more important to the bride and groom to pick their play list in their stupid phones than it is to have real, live, actual musicians making real, live, actual music... which is so lame! It is the same with school formal dances. I can't even fathom it. No classiness or elegance. No love of art. No feeling of excitement or specialness, at all! Churches and Institutes don't even have dances anymore, let alone live music at the dances. In the years since the Obama recession, then COVID, and now Biden inflation, businesses have pretty much stopped having parties at all, let alone parties with live music. Many cities that used to have concerts in the park have switched to outdoor movie nights. It is so sad.
So to get gigs, you really have to hustle, because there are far fewer events, and more bands trying to get them. Especially if you don't want to play bars and alcohol-serving clubs. You have to be a really good band, for starters, but it takes more than that. Over the years, I have created a huge Excel spreadsheet with every city, county, county fair, arts fair, high school, university, Institute, concert series, restaurant that has live music, and big business that I have been able to find in a 100 mile radius, listed with the events they have, when the events are, what month they make their decisions for the upcoming year, their web site, the contact person, phone, email address, when the last time we played for them was, how much they paid us then, and when I last contacted them and their response. To create it took a lot of web searching and a ton of phone calls. Each year, I email them about our band, with a link to our web site, and ask to be considered. If I don't hear back within a couple of weeks, I call them. Our web site has a description, a list of places we've played, bios of the band members, promotional photos, demo videos, and contact information. I also carry business cards around everywhere I go, and hand them out when I strike up conversations with strangers whenever I'm standing in line somewhere. I talk to my bosses, coworkers, church members and leaders, places I shop, my dentist and doctors, and basically everyone I meet.
That's how to get gigs. Basically, it's the same way as how to learn to be excellent on guitar, bass, or keyboard: WORK HARD AT IT.
So for 99% of musicians, you are better off just booking gigs yourself. It is hard work, and it is frustrating and discouraging at times, but it is do-able, and you'll do better at it than an agent because nobody else cares as much about getting gigs for you as you do.
In most of the bands I’ve ever been in, I have been the band member who did the vast majority of the booking. That’s because I like to play, and if I didn’t do it, we’d never play. That’s just the honest truth. And the other members of my bands will admit that. In Relic, Fender Benders, and nearly every other act I perform with, 95% of the gigs we have played have resulted from me sending out emails, calling people on the phone, and pitching my act in person. Is it worth it? Absolutely yes. Because I love gigging. And I have learned that the more you play, the more you play. Only by getting out there and playing do people hear you, ask for your business card, and then call to ask you to play for them. You can have a great web site or social media account, but until you are actually gigging, very few gigs will come to you.
It is a tough business that has only gotten tougher during my lifetime. When I was in high school in the early 1970s, a live band played at every formal dance, plus a couple of "stomp" dances a year. Having a DJ play records would have been unthinkable. Likewise for university dances, church dances, Institute dances, and corporate parties. Additionally, live music was strongly preferred for weddings if the parents of the bride could afford it. My band in the early 1980s played an average of four dances per month, pretty much split evenly between school, corporate, and church dances.
Today, people don't even seem to want live music. It is astonishing to me when I offer to play a wedding for free or for a greatly reduced price for the family of a relative, friend, or student, and they turn me down. These days, it is more important to the bride and groom to pick their play list in their stupid phones than it is to have real, live, actual musicians making real, live, actual music... which is so lame! It is the same with school formal dances. I can't even fathom it. No classiness or elegance. No love of art. No feeling of excitement or specialness, at all! Churches and Institutes don't even have dances anymore, let alone live music at the dances. In the years since the Obama recession, then COVID, and now Biden inflation, businesses have pretty much stopped having parties at all, let alone parties with live music. Many cities that used to have concerts in the park have switched to outdoor movie nights. It is so sad.
So to get gigs, you really have to hustle, because there are far fewer events, and more bands trying to get them. Especially if you don't want to play bars and alcohol-serving clubs. You have to be a really good band, for starters, but it takes more than that. Over the years, I have created a huge Excel spreadsheet with every city, county, county fair, arts fair, high school, university, Institute, concert series, restaurant that has live music, and big business that I have been able to find in a 100 mile radius, listed with the events they have, when the events are, what month they make their decisions for the upcoming year, their web site, the contact person, phone, email address, when the last time we played for them was, how much they paid us then, and when I last contacted them and their response. To create it took a lot of web searching and a ton of phone calls. Each year, I email them about our band, with a link to our web site, and ask to be considered. If I don't hear back within a couple of weeks, I call them. Our web site has a description, a list of places we've played, bios of the band members, promotional photos, demo videos, and contact information. I also carry business cards around everywhere I go, and hand them out when I strike up conversations with strangers whenever I'm standing in line somewhere. I talk to my bosses, coworkers, church members and leaders, places I shop, my dentist and doctors, and basically everyone I meet.
That's how to get gigs. Basically, it's the same way as how to learn to be excellent on guitar, bass, or keyboard: WORK HARD AT IT.