The problem with festival booking

I got an email today from someone who is in a management company that works with Christian bands. He asked me for contacts at two music festivals. I have one, but I'm not sure I have the other. I've been in booking long enough to know people who would be able to tell me the contact that I don't have, and I feel good that I'll be able to get it. That's not a problem.

The problem is that new bands, even if they're really good, won't know where to go to to find the booking information to a festival that they've never played. And so, today I pretended that I was in an indie band, and I went looking for an email contact to a random music festival. This is what I found:

Please send an email to booking@festival.org, with a message in the subject line "festival submission." Include a link to your website so we can listen to your music. We can assure you that someone will listen to your music, but we can not promise you a spot on the stage simply based on your email submission.

Most of the music festivals will have the same kind of information for bands who are interested in playing at the event. This method of submission is not effective for indie bands who are trying to find venues to play. First, this information was incredibly hard to find-- how good would you feel about the time you spent finding the address and sending the email? And, after all the time you spent searching for the information, all you are promised is that "someone" will listen to your music.

When you're sending your information to a general email address such as booking@festival.org, you would write:

Check us out at www.bandname.com
We would love to be considered to play at your music festival next year. My phone number is....

But, if someone could give you a personal email address like andrew@festival.org, you would write:

Hey Andrew! This is ______ from www.bandname.com. I am a friend of _______, and he gave me your email address. Please consider us to play at your festival next year. You can reach me at ....

These personal email addresses are the contacts that a booking agent would be able get or would have already. How much would you be willing to pay for a good booking agent who has that kind of information? What if you didn't have to pay for it? Your band still has to be really good to land the gigs at music festivals, but if you didn't have to pay for this kind of booking information, you could afford to spend your hard earned money and time elsewhere to help build your band.

Where do you find information like that other than a booking agent? Stay tuned.

White Collar Sideshow

(t) - the ringleader
(P)hilip - the mask
veronica - the faceless woman

HM Magazine "Pick Of The Litter" August 2008

You don't often hear about hidden addictions, especially to pornography, within the walls of the church, but that is exactly what White Collar Sideshow intends to do. Led by sharing his own personal struggle with addiction, (t) intends to help people who struggle with secret addictions by leading a "revolution of the heart."

Addiction to pornography belongs to no sole demographic. It reaches beyond age groups, married and single, male and female, and the faithful and the faithless. According to (t), most children are first exposed to pornography at around age 8, and it is easy for that "monster" to grow to the point where a person is addicted by the time they are a teenager or young adult.

The music of White Collar Sideshow is drum and bass alone, and the performances are filled with music and video based on (t)'s struggle with sexual and drug addiction. This may not be the type of band you would typically invite to your church to lead a traditional worship service, but it would absolutely be something that would be attractive to the un-churched teenager or struggling adult, and a great opportunity for outreach to these groups.

White Collar Sideshow
Fort Smith, Arkasas
479-650-1498
whitecollarsideshow@hotmail.com

Philmont

By now, you have probably heard of Philmont. Philmont is a band from North Carolina that has recently signed with Forefront Records. I booked them for Ichthus Music Festival 2008, and was really impressed by their performance-- they are incredible! I met these guys for the first time earlier this year at GMA Week in Nashville. I already knew their manager from another band that he worked with in the past, so I was fortunate to meet Philmont through him. Philmont is a super cool band, and they are just regular guys, which makes them really easy for the fans to approach!

When they got to Ichthus this past summer, they called me so I could help them get to my stage and find a campsite... yes, they actually camped! By the time I got to the front of the festival grounds where they were, they were hanging out with a security guard whom I'm sure went to their show when they played. They had been at Ichthus for 10 minutes and already making new fans before playing a single note.


I took this photo of Philmont at Ichthus. The guys worked the festival grounds for 3 days to help let people know what time they'd be playing on The Edge Stage, and they had a great response with the crowd that came to their show, as you can see in this picture.

"The Difference" video, at the top of this post, is a new discovery for me. I just found it about a week ago. I've been texting Scott (the lead singer of the band) about information for this article, and he told me that they recorded this video by themselves for under $300. That is just awesome! It doesn't always have to cost a fortune to make something that looks good.

Philmont is currently on tour with Pillar, Addison Road, and Our Heart's Hero. Of this list, the only band that I haven't booked for Ichthus is Pillar, and I'm working on getting a side project band of Kalel and Lester's (two members of Pillar) to Ichthus 2009. I hope we can see a return of Philmont next year as well. Philmont rocks my face off!

http://www.myspace.com/philmontrock
http://www.ichthusfestival.org/

NBN Nashville

We're back from our short stay at Next Big Nashville. It was an incredible conference and festival. Venues we visited included The Rutledge, The Anchor, 3rd & Lindsley, and Douglas Corner Cafe. Notes from the events will be posted here on CrossGig throughout the next week. This year was the first year that NBN had panel discussions held at the Musician's Hall of Fame, and for me, that was a very strong part of the event. The Friday morning panel discussions offered valuable information for bands and managers. Notes from the panel discussions will also be posted on CrossGig in the coming week.

On Friday afternoon, I spent some time at The Anchor on 3rd Avenue with the booking person and the pastor of the church. I will be posting information about this as soon as possible. The Anchor is a great venue with a passion for reaching out to people in the community.

Special thanks go to Nikki Herceg from for allowing CrossGig to be part of Next Big Nashville.

Next Big Nashville 2008

In case you haven't heard, Nashville isn't all about Country Music and urban cowboys dressed in rhinestone shirts that cost more than my car. Nashville is also the hub of a very vibrant independent music scene, and Next Big Nashville is it's showcase. The first year of the festival was in 2006. By 2007, close to 150 artists and bands played during the event, and this year the number has blossomed to 250.

We'll be there!

Why, you might ask, would a website that will deal with Independent Christian musicians be at a festival that isn't really for Christian bands? One word. Indie. Next Big Nashville is a festival that features the next big band to come out of Nashville. In other words, it's a festival for mostly independent bands.

But the festival is not all about music. Also at Next Big Nashville (NBN) is a conference that will take place during the day that will focus on the changes in the business of music that is enabling and empowering independent musicians. On Friday morning we'll be going to a panel discussion at the Musician's Hall of Fame led by Derek Webb, co-founder of Noise Trade, and other media companies that are interested in helping independent musicians. According to the NBN website, the 21st Century DIY panel will discuss the tools available for independent artists.

We're not going to miss the music though. Come on, it's Music City! We've been invited by a folk rock band from Nashville named Quote to come to their performance during NBN on Thursday night at Douglas Corner. The show at Douglas Corner starts at 8 PM includes Levi Weaver, Bryan Cates, Aron Wright, Emily DeLoach, Lylas and Quote.

The bands playing at NBN may be mostly unknown for now, and although not all will make giant waves in the overall music scene, their performances at NBN could be a step toward wider exposure within the indie scene.

If you're an indie band looking for an immediate way to make contacts and extend your exposure, then the place you need to be during the 2nd week of September is the Next Big Nashville festival.

See you there!

EyesUponUs CD Release Party

EyesUponUs

Christopher Cool - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboard
Eric Drane - drums, backing vocals
Chris Simpson - lead guitar, backing vocals
Andrew Joyce - bass guitar, backing vocals

EyesUponUs performed at The Java Shop in Georgetown KY for their CD Release Party on Friday, August 5th, 2008. They performed to an audience of about 40 in the venue area, and there were an additional 20 kids in the game room.

From my journal - the beginning of CrossGig

A few pages from my journal


Our Virtual Artist Agency

12-05-07

What if there was a place where Christian or faith-based bands could put up information about themselves where faith-based organizations like churches could go to read about them? What if at this place, a band could post music, videos, and even a blog if they wanted? What if on the band's site, there was a place where a church could not only find contact information about the band, but also could find out how much it may cost to have that band play at an upcoming youth event? And what if after the youth event, the church could leave a comment on the band's site about how the band did so that other churches could read about how professional that band will act around the kids at a youth event?

What if a group of kids from any church in the US had a place where they would find a really good band that they could talk to their youth leader about?

What if [Indie] Christian bands didn't have to be left out in the dark on a website since that website doesn't cater only to secular bands [or signed Christian bands]? What if there was a website that didn't feature secular bands without a positive message?

What if there was a safe place online where all this could be done? What if it didn't cost anything, and therefore eliminating the need for ads that took people away from the website, and especially to sites that didn't have a message that was related to the host site?

What if there was a place where a youth leader could go to find a venue that books Christian bands in the the city where the youth leader conference is being held next month?

What if that website also had a listing of churches with a contemporary worship service within each city?

What if that website had a bunch of articles about how a church would be able to raise money [if they needed to] to afford to get a band to come to their youth event?

end of journal entry

AFTER 9 MONTHS OF PLANNING, THAT WEBSITE IS ABOUT TO BECOME A REALITY, AND IT'S GOING TO BE CALLED CROSSGIG.COM.