General Music Chat

Anyone like myself who makes most or all of their living from music performance has been dogged by this (and don't tell me you haven't!) That is - How do I find a good agent?

A decent agent can make all the difference between you playing for your money, or waiting tables for it. Here's what I've found from my own experience when it comes to spotting and closing on the good ones.


Did you aproach them, or did they approach you?
They certainly won't sell you if they had no interest in you in the first place, but sometimes you have to make yourself known to them first because they simply may not have heard you yet.

How jazzed are they about what you do?
Personal enthusiasm is the best motivator. It not only pushes an agent to produce for their artist, but sparks creativity in their venue options.

Do they have a business head?
An agent that lines up nothing but freebies (charities, benefits and other pro bono gigs) is useless. Oh and beware the incessant line "Hey, this will get you great exposure!"

This kind of agent likely isn't "hungry" enough, and is doing this because they are rich and or bored. Pass on those!

Are they really good with people?
Lots of wannabe agents really cannot handle human interraction. See how they are around people first, or see how long their client list is. You don't want Nurse Ratchet representing you.

Flake factor?
How many times did they make an appointment with you but missed it or blew it off? How many times did they swear to take care of some detail but didn't? Be tough on this one. Flakes won't do you a damn bit of good.

Do they want more than 20 percent?
They better be shining your shoes and delivering the world for that. 15% is still a standard rate.

Do they demand an exclusive contract?
Again, they better be able to deliver the world for that one. Exclusive contract offerings are rare because of what the expectations are from the artist (and rightly so). Don't sign ANY contract you are not completely comfortable with.

And last question....

Where do we find them?



So weigh in on this, good people! What have your experiences been? Agents, how do you see this from your side of the fence?

Controlled chaos, military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, diminutive giant, enthusiastic indifference, fairly accurate, honest politician, Hell’s Angels, honest thief ... good agent ... I like a good oxymoron. Thanks, Irminsul. Rock out.

Hmmmm,
Seems to me I read that list of what to look for in an agent, word - for - word, letter-for-letter, somewhere else . . . .

Hmmmm,
Seems to me I read that list of what to look for in an agent, word - for - word, letter-for-letter, somewhere else . . . .

That would be quite the interesting phenomenon, considering I constructed that post from my own experience.

So what do you have to add to finding a good agent, Samick? I'm all ears.

Controlled chaos, military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, diminutive giant, enthusiastic indifference, fairly accurate, honest politician, Hell’s Angels, honest thief ... good agent ... I like a good oxymoron. Thanks, Irminsul. Rock out.

Hahaha. I hear you. I guess that's why I wanted to start a thread on it, collecting from different peoples' experiences. Maybe we can all benefit from those experiences, be they positive or negative.

I remember reading that shining your shoes line before, somewhere last week, that's all.
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You (or other readers) might be interested in these sites:
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http://www.princesf.com/smam.htm
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http://www.gigmasters.com/membership.asp
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http://showbizltd.com/_sbl_pages/music_ ... FQodnnQZ7A
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http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstor ... satlas.htm
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One of these sites may help some of you.

I was familiar with gigmasters, but not the other ones. Thanks.

Peace.

Controlled chaos, military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, diminutive giant, enthusiastic indifference, fairly accurate, honest politician, Hell’s Angels, honest thief ... good agent ... I like a good oxymoron. Thanks, Irminsul. Rock out.

Hahaha. I hear you. I guess that's why I wanted to start a thread on it, collecting from different peoples' experiences. Maybe we can all benefit from those experiences, be they positive or negative.

When I first moved to Nashville our band was on the verge of starvation. I can remember sitting across the desk of our agent (whose name will remain anonymous) and inquiring about the outlook for bookings. “Bookings?” he said, “why, I can book a jackass baseball team.” He didn't understand our talent nor did he care. To him we were just another “jackass baseball team.” I think I have had a low esteem for agents in general since then. I know there are exceptions but there is just something about the profession that attracts people like that. To me that is why “good agent” is an oxymoron.

True, it seems their rep taints the field. But I'll tell you, what got me interested in better about agents is what some friends of mine in a very busy band called Golden Bough told me.

Their agent is this nice woman named Nina Black, who does all the booking and management of their band. They play something like 200 + days a year. Most of it, far from their homes. Ms. Black, operating with nothing but a phone, fax machine and a helluva lot of drive, not only gets top dollar for these guys but makes sure their travel expenses, food and even a small per diem are taken care of outside of the fee. The upshot is, thanks to her efforts, Golden Bough makes enough to support five families - in Southern California! (Anybody who's lived down there sure knows what kind of money we're talking about here).

I tell ya, I could sure use an agent like that. I talked to Ms. Black for two hours one day by phone and she told me that its not that hard for someone who really wants to do it. She recommended finding someone who is nearly fanatical about your music, and even a smidgen of business sense and motivation.

I think the key there, Irminsul, is in your statement that the agent is “nearly fanatical about” Golden Bough's music, and that they obviously don't have a user-car-salesman type of agent. (Now there I go again bashing another group.) I don't mean to disparage all agents (or used car salesmen for that matter), I worked with an excellent agency in Cincinnati, AJaye Agency, and a good one in Nashville, Crescent Moon. My experience is that the least you must be able to do is establish a strong symbiotic relationship, one that motivates the agent to do his/her best regardless of their degree of fan-ship. But if they are a fan to boot, that is all the better. I would advise you to beware of the pseudo-fan type of agent. These guys will hook you into a contract with accolades and kudos extolling your greatness, then put you on the shelf with their other musical conquests. Sometimes record companies would use the same tactic just to remove you from the competition. If you made it big, great, if you didn't, great. Uh oh, there I go bashing another group.

Yeah, unfortunately, I've already had one of those - an agent that represented an electronic act I was in a few years ago. She thought we all walked on water, gushed praise about everything we did, but in the field she was entirely useless. Well, wait....she got us plenty of offers to play for "exposure" (meaning for free of course). I got so frustrated with her that I told her people DIE from exposure in the wilderness. We fired her at that point. Really nice lady, but oy vey, not a bit of help in getting us work.

You'd think that some enterprising individual or individuals would be watching this, learn from the horror stories, and enter the fray to make a living for themselves. My state is just brimming with amazing talent - but you couldn't sniff out an agent, or even an agency, with a hundred hound dogs. The market is here. I wonder when the new generation of agents will show up to exploit it?