booking agents

[smiller]

You're gonna have the same weird time either way - might as well try to book one yourself. Yeah, it sucks not having people return your calls, dealing with insane drives etc - but just do it & see what it's about. Lose some money, big deal. Totally agree with Kevin here:

If you don't care enough about what you do to put the work in, you really have no business making it available to the public at large. You can play music in your own basement for your own friends without clogging up record bins, distros, review sections and touring routes. It's those kind of bands that hurt the rest of the scene by bumming out reviewers so much that you end up with things like all the MRR reviews during the 90's, for example. You end up destroying valuable resources like Book Your Own Fucking Life.

[wnkrs]

men who don't work on their own shit are SAD especially in this day and age with google and all

men who pay to get their oil changed

[rutabowa]

men who don't work on their own shit are SAD especially in this day and age with google and all

ha this cracks me up!

[wnkrs]

str8^

[tahiti amin]

I honestly don't care if bands have booking agents.  Would I rather deal with the band directly?  Of course, but some bands I want to see have booking agents so  I deal with their booking agent.  Most aren't that bad to deal with some even do a good job, but smaller bands I think are better served booking things themselves.  You don't have to even know people in this day and age.  When I first started booking tours you made a series of cold calls to clubs all over the country, had to mail promo packs and hoped people got back to you, and through trial and error you slowly got better at it.  Now a days you can post your songs on bandcamp scour the internet for bands who sound like they have something in common with you in towns you want to visit and contact them, or you can go on site like this one and try to hook up with people.  You make friends through tour and with facebook and terminal boredom it is easier than ever to keep contact with people, and utilize those connections for future tours.  To each their own, but I feel bands are missing out who start with booking agents.  My fondest memory of my first tours are the disasters we found ourselves in cause we had no idea what we were doing.

[wnkrs]

u have 2 man up 2 enjoy life IMO

[rutabowa]

You're gonna have the same weird time either way - might as well try to book one yourself. Yeah, it sucks not having people return your calls, dealing with insane drives etc - but just do it & see what it's about. Lose some money, big deal. Totally agree with Kevin here:

OR you could get someone who knows what they're doing to do it, and have a great time and not lose money. maybe learn from them too (rather than learning how to do it from looking it up on google re: wnkrs post!!). and actually losing money is a BIG deal to me, i don't have a safety net, i have a family to support, i can't afford to let them down to support my ego.

[rutabowa]

u have 2 man up 2 enjoy life IMO

sorry i am not up on "text speak".

[2 Cold Scorpio]

not to be an asshole but if you have a family to support and that is your main concern, then you probably should just stay home with them.

Booking a tour really isn't that hard. 

[rutabowa]

I honestly don't care if bands have booking agents.  Would I rather deal with the band directly?  Of course, but some bands I want to see have booking agents so  I deal with their booking agent.  Most aren't that bad to deal with some even do a good job, but smaller bands I think are better served booking things themselves.  You don't have to even know people in this day and age.  When I first started booking tours you made a series of cold calls to clubs all over the country, had to mail promo packs and hoped people got back to you, and through trial and error you slowly got better at it.  Now a days you can post your songs on bandcamp scour the internet for bands who sound like they have something in common with you in towns you want to visit and contact them, or you can go on site like this one and try to hook up with people.  You make friends through tour and with facebook and terminal boredom it is easier than ever to keep contact with people, and utilize those connections for future tours.  To each their own, but I feel bands are missing out who start with booking agents.  My fondest memory of my first tours are the disasters we found ourselves in cause we had no idea what we were doing.

well that is totally reasonable.

[rutabowa]

not to be an asshole but if you have a family to support and that is your main concern, then you probably should just stay home with them.

Booking a tour really isn't that hard.

if it isn't that hard then why is it such a big deal to get someone else to do it? so that you can do it yourself and possibly totally fuck it up?
as for the first line of your post, well just scratch the "not" from the start of the sentence and you have it about right.

[k.]

Guess what? I know tons of people with kids who book their own tours, and your point is moot anyway, because if you have a family and have to be concerned about money, then you'd definitely go for the cheaper route, by DOING IT YOURSELF.

The only tour I've ever been on where the band wound up IN DEBT after the tour, was also the only tour I've ever been on with an established, reputable booking agent.

Except for Europe this past summer, I've never left for tour with more than five to twenty dollars in my pocket, and I've always made it through alive. That's kind of the whole reason I tour though, for the experience. I mean, sure it's great to promote your music, but that's just gravy.

[rutabowa]

Guess what? I know tons of people with kids who book their own tours, and your point is moot anyway, because if you have a family and have to be concerned about money, then you'd definitely go for the cheaper route, by DOING IT YOURSELF.

maybe those people/you are GOOD at booking tours and had some practice doing disasters whilst they didn't have kids. i dunno i heard a lot of stories in real life (and some on this thread) about the glory of booking it yourself being partly the disasters! i can't do that now.

if you ended up in debt after a tour booked by someone else then that the booker was a BAD PLUMBER i guess.

yeah booking it yourself would mean the tour was a great experience, but also having someone else book it might mean that you end up places you woudl never have thought of yourself. (of course we are not doing it to make money, that would be a pretty crazy idea) i am not trying to convice you to do it, i'm not even trying to change your mind about me bein a pussy for not looking up how to fix sinks on google (wait that was someone else on this thread but i'm getting punch drunk).

[wnkrs]

u have 2 man up 2 enjoy life IMO

sorry i am not up on "text speak".

why are you getting so offended dude??!???!?!??!?!?!? imo means in my opinion just so you know!! can't even look something up yourself huh!?!?!?!

[tahiti amin]

maybe he is to busy calling plumbers