A Thousand Dreams - A Booking Nightmare

The following is a blog that I wrote for my Myspace page in August 2006. This was written by me, but it is from the viewpoint of someone who booked a venue.

The Blog

I was on the website of a venue in Ohio yesterday, and I saw where the booking/sound guy (who is a friend of mine) wrote that over 250 bands have played there this year. So I thought about all the bands that I've booked to play this year. I would say by years end, I will have booked at least 250 to 300 bands to play at Upbeat Cafe, plus another 42 for Ichthus, and 11 for the other festival I do. So we're looking at around 350 bands per year. If I exchange only 5 emails or phone calls with each of those bands, I've written and received 1750 emails for bands that I've booked. That doesn't count the contacts with other venues, booking agents, managers, and people asking me about the concerts. If I count in the emails and cds that I've received from bands that wanted to play, but I haven't booked, I'm getting into contact with about a THOUSAND bands per year. Please remember that there are only 365 days in a year. I try not to think about it too much. I'm getting a head ache thinking about it right now. It's almost too much for a part time job that I barely get paid for. What if a band had to be in contact with a thousand venues each year?

Think about this when you contact a venue about booking. If you send an email and don't get a response, it's not necessarily because your music is bad. I would say that most booking agents are swamped with work. If you send an EPK or simply an email, but get no response, send a follow up email within two weeks. If you take the time to build some kind of relationship with a booker, it's most likely that the booker will think of you first when there is an opening. Note: I realize that there are a lot of booking agents who care nothing about music or the musicians who create good music. There are some who are only concerned with making more money than the bands that they book. I try to stay away from those people. There are still some of us (some who are also musicians) who care about bringing good music to their venues. Stick with us.