So You Want to Be a Booking Agent in Nashville, TN

So, you want to work in the music industry in Nashville, TN.? I can assure you it is not as easy as my school counselor led me to believe and it is not as hard as becoming a brain surgeon. However, it could take as long unless you do your home work. Whether you have a full degree or you are merely full of desire, unless you do your homework (know the key players and the business you are pursuing), neither will help you that much. Unless you know someone. Then it's a whole new game. This article is written with the assumption that you do not have a close relative or very close friend in the music business. The higher up that relative or friend is the easier to get you in the door, but then how long you last is up to you. But, having a friend that is the person that simply answers the phone, could get you in the door, and that is one of the big keys to getting a job in the industry, getting in the door. Again, whether you know someone or not, you have to deliver the goods (be good at what you do) or be a fast learner and well liked if you want to stay in the business.

This is my story...I have been in the Entertainment industry for over thirty years. I started in the concert promotion business as a stage hand, which is the lowest rung. I was able to do a good job at that and eventually worked my way up to stage manager. That is a seasonable job since there is only in a good year, 12 concerts. Because the perks in that business are so good, you can get someone, after training to do the job for a small salary. So, once that person "grows up" and is desirous of a well paying job, they leave. The life expectancy for stage managers in that day and time was about five years. The company I worked for had been in business for five years when I was asked to be the stage manager. The first manager, got a "real" job. I had the job for five years until the company went out of business. We promoted around 25 shows in those five years. Groups like Styx, Three Dog Night, Lynard Skynard, REO Speedwagon were annual acts so got to know them and their people and that helped me in years to come. Remember, it's who you know, or whose name you can drop, that will help you get in the door. How you handle that information is also a key ingredient to success. I embelished on my history in case someone reading this article decides that he or she might want to be a concert promoter. Which by the way, I did aspire to be a promoter and eventually started my own promotion company. I learned a lot, made a ton of contacts, but I lost a lot of money. I figure it now as the cost of my education, since I never graduated college. I (and my parents) paid for me to graduate from the school of hard knocks. That degree ended up serving me quite well. At least it got me into the offices of some of the key decision makers in the music business. Then, it was all up to me to deliver. If you choose the same path, I wish you the same results. I will tell you to remember every name of every one you meet. From the associate booking agent that may be on tour with the act, to the road manager, who usually aspires to be a manager and most do become personal managers after their stint on the road. Any artist's assistant could eventually be a big asset to you so become their friends and stay in touch. Don't bug them or become a pest by calling them everyday etc., but from time to time drop them an e-mail or a text.

Now, let's assume that you did not start in the concert promotion business as outlined above. Let's say you are a lover of music and feel that it is in your blood to work in the industry and that you have no friends or family in the business. Now, if it is a recording artist or a writer that you are aspiring to become, that is another article for another time. Stay tuned for, "So you want to be a rock star". Back to no friends and family in the business etc. I suggest that before you up and move to Nashville, get on the internet and study every article, every publication you can get your hands on concerning your trade-of-choice. Let's say you want to be a booking agent. Get your hands on a copies of R&R, Billboard and Cash Box magazines. Look for articles in those magazines that deal with artists on tours, booking agencies, fair buyers, yaddi yadda yadda. Many times it will say who books the tour and that will give you a name. Write that name down and treat it like you have just been introduced to your favorite entertainer. That name could be the one that is going to give you your big break. You will also need to know who hires the majority of the acts for performances, whether it is a club, a fair buyer, a concert promoter etc. The bigger clubs usually book bigger acts and so on. You need to know what acts play at what size venue. This information will also pay off once you get into that door. Those magazines will give you names of other trade magazines. You will want to read as many as you can get your hands on. You will want to know all of the key movers and shakers in the booking agency business. All of the names of every agency in town. Who the biggest ones are, then who is next to them, then next to them right on down to the smallest agency in the business and who they book and soon a picture will start to form of how and why they are where they are and why an artists would or would not want to be with them. The last thing you want to happen when you do finally get in the door of a key decision maker at an agency is to say something that lets them know you don't have a clue about what you are doing, or moreover as to what they are doing. When I was hiring a new agent I looked for one that I could feel good about. That meant that I could give them a desk, a phone and an artist roster and they could take it from there. So study, study and study some more. Get an MBA from the same school I graduated from and get your Masters in Booking Agency. Then move to Nashville, get a job that can support you while you start the exploratory work of becoming an agent. You could get lucky, or your education could pay off on the first day, or it could be much longer. But the more prepared you are, the greater your chances. Lastly, if you go to a meeting, make sure and get all the names of anyone you meet, including the receptionist. Drop a name in your next meeting, like " last week I was visiting with Bob Smith at the Bob Smith Agency and he was telling me how most agencies now are laying agents off. However, he said for me to try this agency because of what you have been able to accomplish for your acts lately" Keep in mind, you only use that line if you have done your research and that agency has all the top acts, or at least their fair share of the hot acts. Now, to keep that from being a bold face lie, you have to be creative in every agency. Once you had established in your meeting with Bob Smith that he could not hire you, you ask him if he knows about the XYZ agency. Whether or not he feels they will be hiring. He most likely will say, "perhaps they could be hiring, give them a call". If that is the jest of what he was saying, then you did not lie to Mr. XYZ. Trust me, they don't talk to each other that often and the chances of your name being brought up is slim to none. He is either going to hire you and it won't matter what Bob Smith said, or he wasn't going to hire you in which case, your name wouldn't be brought up anyway. What have you got to lose. Be very careful with that information. Do not intentionally lie or mislead someone. Like telling Mr. ABC that you know Garth Brooks, when all you did was shake his hand at Fan Fair (It's called Country Music Festival now).

So, if you want to be a booking agent in Nashville, TN. Remember, Be persuasive and persistent, be truthful and tolerant, be accurate and accessible and most of all be knowledgeable.