How to get the most out of your agent

Over the last few years as an artist manager, I have had several positive (and not so positive) experiences with agents. I can remember the first time I signed one of my bands to a major agency. I was so excited! I thought we would start making more money, get some big opening opportunities and play at all of the big festivals. In contrast to my hopes, we ended up with crappy tours, 0% increase in live performance revenue, no opening slots and nothing more than a few local festivals. After a few years under my belt and a few more agency experiences, I finally figured out how to make the most out of a major agency. In this post, I am going to try to break down the key things that I did differently that made for a much more positive experience. For all of you seasoned veterans out there, I’m sure you know most of this already, but for you younger managers or DIY artists who have recently signed with an agent, are aspiring to find a agent or who are not so happy with the early results of a recent signing, I hope this helps.

First of all, you need to realize that if your band averages less than $1000 a performance, it does not provide much of a monetary incentive to any established agent. An agent is not going to spend hours a day hunting down indie promoters, bars and other small venues for your less than $1000 a show. Think about it. At 10%, we are talking less than $100 for each show booked. How do you get your agent to prioritize your low paying shows over some of his roster’s heavy hitters? The amount of time that goes into a $10,000 show is not much more than what goes into a $1,000 show. This means that you need to sell the agent on your future success/value. You need to make him believe that in a year or 2 your band’s value will grow considerably, adding to the list of heavy hitters on his roster. Here are some of the things that I did on my last management project that really changed the game for us:

1. A leader with a vision for success

Essentially all your agent does is book shows. One of the most important things for an agent is to know that there is someone championing the project and that this person has a realistic vision of where they band is going to go. I had a chat about a band with an agent friend of mine recently. He expressed that he liked the band, but then said “if you manage this project and have a vision for how it will be a success, I am in” After speaking with him more about it, I realized that although he liked the music and the folks in the band, he was not prepared to make the time investment unless he was confident that there was someone that saw a path of success and was dedicated to driving the agenda. This can be a manager or a keen band leader. You just need to have someone dedicated to making sure all of the pieces come together (performances, press, distro, money, etc.)

2.  Build an awesome team

Your agent wants to make money off you and be part of a success story. Building a team that includes a great radio promoter, publicist, label or distributer, manager, consultant, producer, etc., demonstrates that you are serious about success. If you can bring in people that have a successful track record this will help grow your agent’s belief in the project.

3.  Develop a marketing plan and a strategic plan

What are you going to do and how are you going to do it? How does everyone in the team fit into the plan? Click here to read my previous blog post about developing a marketing plan. Usually, I come up with a rough one pager plan before I have a team in place, which includes the big picture vision and summary strategy for getting there. I then build a team based on this vision and once the team is in place, I work with the team to finalize the marketing plan. This way everyone has contributed and has a sense of ownership in the project.

4.  Provide the tools for your agent to be able to sell your band

The basic tools include a website, photos, bio, stage plot and audio recording, but assuming your band is new or fairly unestablished, most promoters and festival bookers have likely not seen your band. Although showcasing at music events can be a great way to expose your music to buyers, in many cases getting in front of them physically can be a challenge. For this reason, one of the most critical tools is a live performance video. Here is an example of the one that I produced to equip my agent to book Carmen Townsend‘s first cross Canada rock tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sYwQoQVMz0 You may have a great sounding record, but in this day and age that alone does not instill confidence in a buyer that you can really kick it live. Here is another example of a purpose-built video we made to land Carmen an acoustic cross Canada opening slot for Heart. They needed a tool that would give confidence to the tour promoter and Heart’s management that Carmen could get up on stage with an acoustic guitar and kicks ass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD6DUqQFST4&feature=related

Your agent has relationships with buyers that will help him land opportunities for you, but he needs high level tools to get your these slots. He is not going to be calling promoters begging that they book you.

5.  Schedule regular meetings with your agent

Plan 6 to 12 months out what markets you want to visit and why. Agents are always talking to venues and promoters. You need to (without driving them too crazy) be in their ear on a regular basis letting them know what you are looking for. When I was working on landing a major opening tour for Canada, I would bring it up every time I talked to them. I would also contact managers of more established bands and email my agent letting him know what I have done and the feedback I had received. I made it very clear to him on a regular basis that I wanted an opening slot as a mechanism to introduce my artist to the national market. I was not going to shut up until I got it. In the end, he landed us a killer slot. The same goes for festivals and other tours. Plan early, make sure he knows what you are looking for, and make sure you know exactly what he needs from you to make it happen.

6.  Make it easy for your agent

Again, your agent is not making a ton of money from you (yet), so make his job as easy as possible. For example, instead of saying, we want you to book us a cross Canada tour in May, I would say, “we need to tour Canada in May and focus on markets where we have measured traction. I have already spoken to a band in Vancouver and they want us to open 3 shows with them in Victoria, Nanaimo and Vancouver. Here are the contacts for those shows, we are going to do a split on the door — can you go in and confirm these? Also, I spoke with a friend of mine at club X and he wants to have Carmen on the 5th. He also recommended these 2 venues in Calgary and Edmonton and has put in a good word for us. Based on the markets we are getting press and radio in, I think we need to hit these 12 cities as well. Here are a few venues that we played last time we were out there that worked out really well…” So basically, I have started the tour. The agent does not have to start from scratch — the project is already rolling, and he just needs to go in and seal the deals, do the contracts and fill in the gaps.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions or suggestions on how to get the most out of an agent, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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