Indie Bible - Darkjoy

Importance of contracts
After a few months of working your task list religiously and following up on every CD in a consistent and
professional manner, you should be ready to start booking some gigs. After all the work you have just gone
through to find contacts and reach out to each one of them, it would be a shame to lose out on a gig at the last
minute. Admittedly, last minute cancellations and double bookings can and will occur. The story usually goes like
this:
You sent out your CD in January; to finally book a gig in April for your upcoming August tour. It’s just a
Tuesday night for 100% of the door, rooms and food; but it’s a needed stop-over between Colorado and
Nevada. You call a week before the gig from somewhere in Texas and the club has never heard of you.
What’s worse, there is another band booked on that night and the other band has a confirmed written
agreement. In a toss up situation between the band with no proof and the band with a contract, the band
with the contract usually wins.
For gigs that are low-dough or no-dough deals, you should still send a written agreement. A written agreement is
your only line of defense after all of the work you have gone thru to secure the gig, not to mention the work you
will need to do for properly promoting it. Email is the easiest method because you can easily send the same
message over and over until you get confirmation. Faxing is also relatively easy, however having to send a snail
mail agreement over and over can be a pretty big hassle. Your goal here is to constantly remind the talent buyer of
your agreement and put all of the details in front of them. The higher the dollar value on the agreement the more
diligent you should be about insisting on a signed, hard-copy version of the agreement.
Getting ready for the road
Putting a group of people on the road for any amount of time comes with responsibilities. There are many people
who will need detailed information about your schedule in order for your tour to be effective, safe and organized.
Band members and their families, your manager, a publicist and even your fans all need to have access to different
information about your trip. At a minimum all of your shows should be listed on your website as soon as they are
confirmed. Ideally you would also list set times, the venue’s address, phone number, website and any other bands
on the bill with you.
The Tour Itinerary however is really the best way to be sure your trip is error free. Everyone on your team should
have a chronological listing of each of your tour dates with as much or as little detail as they need. But the master
itinerary for you and your band members should list all of the contact info for each venue, set times, payment
details, venue capacity, ticket price, age limits and step by step directions from one gig to the next. This is your
bible for the trip and the more copies you make the less likely you will be lost in Lincoln, Nebraska without the
buyer’s phone number or any sense of direction.
The Tour Itinerary is also a crucial tool in satisfying your greatest responsibility as a touring band: Advancing
Your Shows. If you want your journey to free of surprises, then you will advance all of your shows. This simply
means contacting the venue a week or so before the gig to confirm performance details, get important load in
information and find out about any last minute changes. Out of your entire organization of band members,
managers, agents, tour managers and interns, there needs to be one person who can assume this role.
Properly promoting your shows
If you have never played before in a particular market, then most likely nobody in that town has any idea who you
are. And why would anyone come out to see you play if they have no idea that you are even playing. What you
really need is some press or at a minimum just a listing with the local radio and print music calendars.
Your first step is to put together all of the contact names, fax numbers, email addresses etc. for the local media
outlets in a 30-60 mile radius of each of your gigs. Then you will have to prepare a professional and concise press
release. A good release should be able to convey all of the pertinent information on one page. Radio stations and
newspapers get flooded everyday with hundreds of releases, they do not have time to read numerous pages that
outline your band’s Zen philosophy or each of your bass player’s numerous influences. Keep it to the point or they
will not read it all. Keep your layout clean; do not use multiple fonts and font sizes or too many colors and
graphics.
Make sure your release has a section with the performance details that is easy to pick out and includes:
Performance Date, Band Name, Venue Name, Full Address, Phone, Website, Ticket Price, Set Times, Age Limit
and any other bands on the bill. Also be sure to include your personal contact information: Contact Name, Phone,
Email, and Website. If someone needs to get in touch for a photo or an interview, you will want them to be able to
track you down quickly and easily.
The Indie Bible - 7 h Edition 1155 www.indiebible.com