Transcript
One way of finding a booking agent in the music business is a thing called Google. By searching out booking agents is one way of finding what you are looking for and writing to them.
When you write to them, you have to illustrate, in the numbers or in the links in your email, that you are not new to this, you do have a following, you do have a buzz. And you can show that through your ReverbNation page, through your Facebook page, your Twitter, that people are following you, that people are interested in you, and they are downloading your music.
Another way of clinching a deal with a booking agent is to invite them to your show. When they come down and they see the following and they see the response, they can say, “Alright. I could do something with this.” Now, a lot of times you are going to work for free, initially, just so that they can use their main artist.
Let’s say, for instance, that I am a booking agent, and I have Rick Ross. I want to make Rick Ross show good, not with other people that are going to compete with him, because they are well known as well. Sometimes I want to create some opening acts and give them an opportunity. I won’t have to pay them or not pay them much. But, I give them an opportunity to make a name for themselves, but I also allow my artist to be highlighted without being in competition with them.
The last thing to know about finding a booking agent is it is sometimes a process. People think that the first time you write to somebody and they do not write back to you or do not respond to your email they give up. A lot of what booking agents want to see is consistency. They want to see you have been on particular shows and that you may reach out that one time. They may see your email, they might not respond or they might respond.
They might say, “Well, we’re not looking for anybody right now.” Then you show up two weeks later, a month later, three months later, and when they see you constantly on it, and every time they got an email or message from you they see, like, “Okay. This person is going, stepping up now and they have this large a following.” And they see that evolution, then they are more than likely to buy into you. But if you had given up too early, then that was almost like the first test that you failed.
Finding a booking agent is pretty easy. There are a ton of them that are out there just by Googling the name of their organization. You can find the name of these organizations and email addresses and just start reaching out to them. One other thing, in addition to directly reaching out to booking agents, is you can also find promoters: people who promote shows. A friend of mine, recently, he opened up for Rick Ross.
What he did was that he just found a promoter and told the promoter, “Hey, I got a buzz. People know me and I would love to open up for the artist. I will do it for free, but if you have a budget, I will take that, too.”
He got paid to open up for Rick Ross and now all of Rick Ross fans got exposed to him. So what he did is he invited the booking agent that he really wanted to come to that show to see him open up for Rick Ross and that is how he clinched the deal. Those are some things you can do to find a booking agent in today’s music business
