When Your Client Isn’t the Bride-Part 1

I am dedicating these next few blog postings to musicians with tips for when your client isn't the bride. This will be a weekly series, so stay tuned......

WHEN YOUR CLIENT IS A BOOKING AGENT

“My sole inspiration is a telephone call from a producer.”—Cole Porter

Good booking agents have a handle on their musicians’ talents, so that they can make decisions about who to hire at a moment’s notice. There are some booking agents who receive a commission from you to find you work.

Waiting for the phone to ring from a booking agent who hires talent for weddings may be a long wait. They work for the bride, not for you.

The booking agent is hired and paid by the bride. They’ll phone, fax, or email you with a job order, simply asking you if you are available. Then they’ll supply you with the time, date, location, and all the particulars in order for you to respond quickly with your price and availability. “Quickly” is the operative word here. A bride will hire a booking agent for the following reasons:
1. She hasn’t the time or energy to search for live entertainers on her own.
2. She has a lot of money to spare and is happy to pay someone to take care of hiring entertainment for her wedding.
3. She has looked for entertainers on her own, but has exhausted all the possibilities she knows of.
4. She needs to hire a musician fast!

Whatever the reason may be, the booking agent will need a response from you pronto.

The longer it takes for them to get back to the bride with your quote, the greater the chance that they will phone someone else and assume you are not interested. You stand a better chance of landing the the gig if you give them a small discount, because the bride is more likely to book you with a smaller mark-up. Also, a booking agent may be more likely to recommend your services if they know you’ll give them a discount.

If a booking agent contacts you about a wedding gig and you have never worked with them before, do some research. Phone other musicians in your area and see if they have had any experience working with the agent. You’ll want to find out if they were sent good wedding jobs and if they were paid in a timely manner.

When a booking agent hires you to play for a wedding, ask them to sign your contract, just as you would with all other clients. They may have their own contract for you to sign, as well.

The booking agent will tell you what to play, when to play it, and how to dress. They’ll give you directions to the wedding location and describe exactly where you’ll set up. They’ll even let you know if you will be served a meal at the wedding or not. They are your sole contact for the wedding. You will not be working with the bride.

This can be wonderful if the booking agent is truly on top of all the details and communicates them to you. It is not so wonderful when the agent drops the ball and leaves out some important pieces of information that you’ll need to know to do your job properly. After being booked for just one wedding job through a booking agent, you’ll know if you’ll ever want to work with them again.

If you decide to build a good, solid relationship with them, they will continue to think of you when a bride is seeking just your kind of talent. Get in touch with the booking agent right after the wedding job, thank them, and report to them how things went.

There is one thing you must never do when a booking agent sends you on a wedding gig: Never give out your business cards or brochures to a wedding guest when you are hired by a booking agent to perform. Instead, give the guests your booking agent’s card. This is the best way to say “Thank you!” to the booking agent who sent you out on that job.

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

When the Unthinkable Happens

It is the one thing that musicians and performers dread. We’re all human, and it can happen. I am referring to double-booking. (Yikes!). Maybe two contracts got stuck together in your files and you didn’t realize you had booked that second wedding on the same day. Or perhaps you transferred the time of the gig from the contract to your calendar incorrectly. Or maybe a fellow band member booked a gig and didn’t tell the other members. However it happened, it can be a real jam.

Beyond double- and triple-checking your availability when a client calls, if you get stuck with two jobs that are just too close together, here is what you can do:

Arrive at the second job earlier that day and drop off equipment (instruments, amps, etc.). Set up as much as possible. Then, go off to your first job with another set of equipment. When you are done at the first job, you will be able to cut down on set-up time when you arrive at the second job because you won’t have to load in. Doing this really helped me when I was in this pickle very recently, and neither of my clients were suspect of anything amiss. (Caution: Of course, make sure you can leave equipment at the first gig in a secure location.)

Certainly, if you can only do the two jobs by cloning yourself and your band members, then you’ve got to give up one of the jobs. Select the job that will be easier to refer to someone else. Find a replacement before you phone your client to give them the bad news. Give your potential replacement all the details about the gig, including your client’s music choices, so that when the client phones them, you will have done all the legwork for them. If you cannot find comparable substitute musicians for the gig, contact your favorite booking agent or wedding coordinator and explain the situation to them.

When you speak with your client, tell them that you have found another musician or band for them. Talk up the other band’s great attributes, give your client their number, and tell them, “Let me know what you would like to do after you speak with them.” Or, refer them to a reputable booking agent or wedding coordinator. One referral is enough—The point is to save your client from needing to contact a bunch of different referrals.

Next, put everything in writing: Your conversation with your client, their decision about whether to have money refunded or sent to the alternative act, and your sincerest apologies. Follow the rules that you established in your performance agreement regarding cancellations, and cite these guidelines verbatim in your letter. Mail this letter to your client (keeping a copy for your records), along with any money owed to them. Then, breathe a sigh of relief.

Even if your client decides they don’t want to book the other performers you recommended, they will appreciate the effort on your part and there is a better chance they will react in a rational way to your news. By the way, handle any gig that you have to cancel for any reason in this manner, even if you didn’t double-book.

Tips for Brides, Event Planners, And Anyone Hiring Performers

Musicians are human. We make mistakes. Life gets in the way and sometimes we need to cancel a performance for rational reasons: family events, surgery, pregnancy, and all kinds of other things, including accidentally double-booking. We’ll try our best to find you a replacement act when these things happen, but if we don’t, please ask us to help you. We may know great booking agents or wedding coordinators who can also help. And we’ll happily return your deposit or send it along to the replacement act you select. We are truly sorry when we need to cancel.

Tips for Musicians:

Understand how your client feels when you need to cancel. Be honest with them. Then, help them as much as possible, even if they get irate. I’d be upset, too, if I suddenly couldn’t have my favorite band play at my event. A little sincere compassion goes a long way.
Many more tips are available from my book “The Musician’s Guide to Brides” available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com , amazon.com, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=9

I’m looking forward to reading your stories, comments, and feedback.
Anne :-)

Anne RoosCeltic Harp Music by Anne Roos
(And contact me at anne@celticharpmusic.com for personal consultation and mentoring—Make a living while gigging)

Painting is by Edvard Munch and is called "The Scream"

Six Tips for Seeking Musicians Through the Internet

The Internet is now the substitute for the Yellow Pages phone book when it comes to looking for talent for your wedding day. But is it truly better? Depends on how you use it. Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of your online musician search:

1. Search engines-Make sure you are searching within the location where your wedding or event will be held. What happens if you fall in love with a band that is 300 miles away from your wedding site? Will you shell out the money to pay for their travel, food, and accommodations? Look for wedding directories in the geographical location where you are getting married by typing something like "Weddings in Tahoe" in the search engine field. Then, look within those directories for the kind of instrumentation you are seeking.

2. Online booking agencies-These websites charge a fee to musicians for their listings. Some of these, such as gigsalad.com, are fantastic. They have a multitude of musicians listed, and you can do your homework from there to get more information. Beware of online booking agencies that charge you a fee to receive information. They should not be charging you to shop on their site (although they may want you to create a username and password so that you can save your searches when you return to their site).

3. Directories that rate musicians who are listed-How did the musicians receive those ratings? Did they pay the site owner an extra fee to receive a five star rating on their listing? And do you really want to hire a musician with less than a perfect rating? If you are looking at directories that rate musicians appearing in their listings, know exactly how they received those ratings before shopping.

4. Online booking agencies that require musicians to send bids to you-Avoid these sites, because there are usually hidden fees that are charged to the musician, and the musician may pass those fees along to you. You may save money if you phone individual musicians, after visiting their web sites, rather than going through a third party to receive bids.

5. Wedding websites-Some of the best places to find musicians online. You will find a musician who has wedding experience and will not end up hiring a band who has no idea how to behave at a wedding.

6. Booking agents online-Many are listed online. Booking agents are particularly useful if you are looking at the last minute, if you want someone else to be the point person with the musicians, or if you simply don't know where to find experienced musicians. Look for booking agents within your geographic area, then give them a call and chat. Expect to pay a commission to a booking agent, a sort of a "finder's fee", for helping you land the perfect musicians for your occasion.

A final word: Beware of comments left on blogs and directories about specific musicians. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Find out if your church, banquet manager, minister, event coordinator, and others at your event also recommend the musicians you are considering.