Open Air Business October/November 2018

EVENTS
NEGOTIATIONS
So how do you know you’re getting the
deal that will work for you? Well you
have to put the work in. Look at tours
and how they sell. Look at geography;
where’s their fan base? Social media
stats are useful but not always truthful.
Ask! Ask the agent, the manager, and
the artist about where they are in their
career. Then start negotiations. An
agent won’t want to pitch a fee and
you don’t want to make a silly offer. I
try and get a ballpark figure from them
first. A place to start. Are we talking
about the same ballpark and if we are
then the game is on. They will pitch
a higher fee; you’ll say we only have
half of that and in the end, you find a
middle ground. The more I do it the
more I know roughly where an artist’s
fee should be from the off.
It’s always a higher fee for festivals
and one-off events. It’s annoying,
but you have to understand why.
Tours are built to be progressive and
geographically sensible. From one town
to the next and in one short period.
They are mostly done on door splits
(percentages) so the artists and team
can work out what the return is likely
to be.
A festival might be at the other end of
the country and they may have to travel
just to do that one gig. They are sharing
the stage with lots of other artists, so
the ticket price calculation and split
doesn’t work. They have to pay one off
costs like rehearsals, drivers, sound and
light techs.
On the flip side, the costs and risks
of festivals are huge and occasionally
artists and agents see them as a cash
cow. In some cases, killing the festivals
that might have booked them again
if only the fees had been a bit more
sensible.
A TOUGH INDUSTRY
And then there’s my biggest
bugbare. We are constantly
asked to book the same big
names, the same top artists over
and over again by their loving
fans. These artists dominate the
market and it becomes a catch
22. Developing artists end up
playing for peanuts and we can’t
book as many as we would like.
So, the scene doesn’t produce,
or the system doesn’t allow,
enough new headliners to climb
to the top.
It has always been like that
I guess. The music scene is
perhaps the toughest of tough
industries and I can’t see that
model changing anytime soon.
It would be refreshing to hear a
major headliner say, “I’ll knock a
few thousand off my fee for you
to book these great new artists
that I’m supporting”. Maybe
that’s something we can work
on in the future?
But it can be magical, so no
more doom and gloom. If you’re
starting something new then
first and foremost, know your
audience and know your genre.
Are you a blues, jazz, hip hop or
something else festival? Do you
know enough about that scene?
Does the scene know enough
about you to trust you? A lot of
agents will want guaranteed
fees up front or certainly
deposits so look at your cash
flow.
You need to work a long long
way ahead. I’m sometimes
booking 18 months in advance.
On the other hand, leave room
for last minute exciting offers
and deals. There is often a panic
nearer the summer and you
need to leave room for names
that suddenly rise to the top
and need a stage to promote the
latest single.