Booking a Rock Show With a Bigger Band

Video Transcript

Hi, this is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to talk to you about getting on an established bill when you're booking a show at a club. Now why do you want to get on a bill that's already been planned out? It's an easy answer, because you don't have to do anything. Once the show has already been booked, and they're just asking you to play the empty slot it's really easy. All you have to do it show up and you don't have to deal with any of the calls and finding bands and negotiating this and that. But there are a couple of things you need to be aware of. First of all, getting onto an existing bill is good if you're a brand new band and you don't have very much experience booking shows and that way, someone has already set everything else up for you. And if you can find a show that's been set up where, in talking to the booking agent, you learn that the other bands have a good draw, or, and/or, they match your style, then you're going to get yourself a belting audience that's going to like your music without you having to do the legwork to bring them in. However, if you are a band that has a decent draw anyway, and you don't need to take the show, going on to a show that's already put together could be a mistake, because you don't want to be the opening act at a show where you could be head-lining and you don't want to be stuck on a bill that has nothing to do with your style of music, because then you show up, you play the show and it's a terrible match for the audience and then you can't play in town for a while, because usually clubs have rules where you have to have two and a half weeks at least, two and a half to three weeks between each gig that you play in town. So, if you only get to play so many gigs in town per month or whatever, you want to pick the right one and getting onto a bill that's already put together that doesn't match you is a waste of your time. Now, if you're going to get onto a bill that's already establishes, it's going to happen in one of two ways. Either a booking agent's going to contact you and say, "Hey, can you play this show?", or maybe a band will contact you or on the other hand, you can go out there and seek the show. So, if you're a brand new band, one thing you can do is contact bigger bands that you're aware of that have a similar style to yours and ask them if you can play a show with them and if they already have a show and there's an open spot, that can be a great opportunity for you.

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