Album Capsules
by Mark E. Waterbury
(hed) Planet Earth - Blackout
Click here for the review
Teresa Russell & Cocobilli - Show You What Love Can Do
Click here for the review
Queue - Waiting to Hear...
Click here for the review
Marc Diffendal - Lava Lamp Explosion
Click here for the review
Church of Betty - Tripping With Wanda
Click here for the review
Fire-Dean - Custom Deluxe
Click here for the review
Tracylyn - Good Rain
Click here for the review
Massiv Da Bigman - Global
Click here for the review
Jeremy Park - Phase 1
Click here for the review
Judge Drain - 3 song demo
Click here for the review
Book Review
Famous Wisconsin Musicians by Susan Masino
Click here for the review
Crossroads: (hed) Planet Earth Vocalist Jahred
by Mark E. Waterbury
Click here
Industry Profile - Steven Hartwick - Talent Agent - United Entertainment
by Mark E. Waterbury
Click here
Feature Article: The Wonderful World of the Club Tour
by Mark E. Waterbury
Click here
Scott Turner's Song Publisher's Perspective
Click here
Music Biz Opportunities
Click here
Music Industry Marketing Showcase
Click here
Serge Home
Click here
Music Morsels archives
Click here
About Music Morsels
Click here
Submission Guidelines
Click here
Ad Rates
Click here
Scott Turner Tapes
Click here
Music Morsels News
Click here
Sponsorship Information
Click here
Sponsors:
MUSIC MORSELS SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
To SUBSCRIBE to our FREE e-mail version of Music Morsels, send an email message to MusMorsels@aol.com and put the word "Subscribe" in the subject field. That's it. Expect to receive your email issue the first week of every month. Please note: We do not share or sell our mailing list with anyone so your privacy is protected.
MUSIC MORSELS - The legal stuff:
Music Morsels is distributed worldwide the first week of the month by subscription.
The e-mail version is FREE. That's 12 educational issues brought to your computer screen! Feedback is always welcome at MUSMORSELS@aol.com. Thank you for your support!
Disclaimer: Just because we print the stuff that doesn't mean we necessarily endorse it. Problems with content? Contact us ASAP and we'll tell you how we can help.
Music Morsels reserves the right to reject certain advertisements based on content.
Copyright 2004 by Music Morsels, a Serge Entertainment Publication.
Editor: Sandy Serge
Contributing Columnists/Writers:
Mark E. Waterbury, Scott Turner
Music Morsels
P.O. Box 2760
Acworth, GA 30102
A division of the Serge Entertainment Group
|
|
 TM© April 2003
Feature Article: The Wonderful World of the Club TourBy Mark E. Waterbury
We asked you a number of months ago if you are tough enough to tour. If you are, then you have to sit down and figure where you are going to tour, what venues you are going to play at and how much money you are going to make...wait a minute! If you are planning on making a lot of money on your first club tour, you better plan again. I'm not going to make it too glum because there are other ways you can make money with your music. But chances are the first time you hit the road playing clubs outside your market, it's not going to be a big pay off financially.
In case you haven't noticed, the economy in the U.S. is in a bit of a recession at the moment. Of course, any economic downturn effects the entertainment business with greater tenacity, as we are an industry that thrives on peoples' discretionary income. With the overall downslide the music industry has been in for a number of years combined with war jitters and incidents such as the recent horrific tragedies in Rhode Island and Chicago, this is a tough time for touring musicians. Getting out on the road is, however, a necessary evil. You really need to know how to deal with your average club booker. Of course, there probably is no such entity as an "average" club booker, but they all have one common goal: to make money for their club. If they are an owner and they don't make money, they lose their business. If they are the club's booking agent and they don't make the club money, then they get fired. One thing I have notice lately which is a reflection of the current economic status is that club bookers have to now clear shows through the club's owner more often, where before bookers tended to have more free reign in taking care of the bookings. So when any band calls them and wants to play in their club, even though they may not say it to you directly, the first thought that is going to go through their minds is, "How are you going to make my club money?" It's not a matter of greed; these days it's pure survival instinct. Even if they love how your music sounds, they need some assurance you are going to make money for the club.
When you make that initial contact with a club, you need to have as much info as you can about why your band is going to bring people through the door. You want a lot of ammo, but chances are who you opened for in the past or how many times you are getting airplay in your hometown does not translate into bodies in the door at the club and - more importantly - bodies spending money on drinks. They will be more interested in how you are going to help promote the show. Do you have fans in the area? How are you going to get the word out to them? Are you going to promote to local radio stations and print media? Are you going to hang up flyers and posters? All of these promotional avenues that you can take either by yourself and with your public relations firm are more likely to help get your foot in the door, because all too often the club relies on the band to promote the show. There are clubs who will do a lot of advertising and promotion for your show, but you have to rely on yourself because of the clubs that do little, if any, promotion. And if you do have an advertising budget for touring, it would be a good idea in your initial contact with the club to ask them what advertising outlet in their market would be the most sensible to target your advertising budget at.
Once you get the club bookers to the point where they want to give you a show, you have to negotiate your fee. Some clubs in markets you have not played in yet - or in big markets like New York and L.A. - will only pay you a door percentage no matter what. But if you do find a club that has the ability to offer you a guarantee, think of asking for a smaller guarantee but then add on either a percentage of the door or bar sales on top of that or work out a bonus system if it is a good night. And even if you are making part of your money off the door percentage, you may ask them to keep the cover charge low the first time in, as this can be advantageous for both parties. For example, if you ask for a $1000 guarantee and they charge ten dollars to get in and you bring only seventy people in the door because in the current economic climate, a high cover charge can turn people away from going to see an unknown band. That's going to be $300 the bar has to take out of the till to pay you, and they will have only those seventy people to spend money buying drinks. You may have your $1000, but you may not get asked back, and may gain a rep that will shut you out in that market. Instead you ask for a $500 guarantee and fifty percent of the door after they clear the $500 at a five dollar cover. This time you bring double the crowd - a hundred forty people in. You made $600 which is of course $400 less than what you could have asked for, but because the club did not have to dig into the till to pay you and they have twice the people to make money off of liquor sales, they will be happy. Chances are you will get asked back and may be able to get a better guarantee the next time around. You will also have twice the people to sell merchandise and CDs to, so you can make up that difference in taking the lower guarantee. And - what is most important for a touring band - you will have made twice the fans, increasing your fan base and taking another step towards being a successful band. If you do take the lower guarantee and the door percentage, one thing your should do is try to get comped or at least discounted for motel rooms, food and drinks. Even if the turn out is a bit lower, when your expenses are covered the money you make at the gig is gravy.
It is very important that you get everything in writing before any gig. Make sure you have a booking contract made up by an entertainment attorney - you can have a "fill in the blanks" template made that you can use for almost every type of club gig. There are some dishonest club bookers and owners out there, and that is not a dig on clubs. There are unfortunately dishonest people in all facets of the music industry, and, for that matter, business in general. Just keep your wits about you, watch your back and get everything in writing. You'll get an idea of who you can trust and who you can't. It's a good idea to do a little detective work on any club you may want to play at, first just to find out if your type of music truly fits there. You can post on the Internet to various sites to find out what types of experiences other bands have had at a club. Sometimes this can save you the hardship of getting a gig at a club that may pull some crap on you.
The clubs themselves are not totally blameless in regard to the recent tough times. When recessions hit, one of the factors in general that keeps an economy from rebounding is that consumers or businesses sit on all their money and don't spend any of it, resulting in economic stagnation by not circulating cashflow. This happens all too frequently with some clubs that don't want to take a chance on paying some money for a good band with some amount of credibility and promotional avenues. They're just too scared to take the risk even if there is enough reason to believe that band can make them money. They would rather hire some local act who will play for the door or even for nothing. The problem with that is when clubs are taking bands as cheap as they can get them chances are they are going to get some bands that really suck. When people pay a cover charge and see a lousy band, and it happens several times at the same club, that club is going to get a bad rep. Do you ever hear this excuse from a club booker - "We don't have a built in draw"? That could be one of the reasons. This is just another factor that makes you have to work harder to sell your band as not only one that people are going to enjoy in concert, but as a money maker as well.
Yes, this is a tough time to tour in clubs. I have recently dealt with booking agencies on levels from small local markets to huge booking agencies that book top name, and most of them would back up what I have just told you. Even bands who have had some level of national success or popularity or musicians who have played with bands that have names have to lower their expectations to get out and perform. A final piece of advice is not to rely totally on club touring for your income. Club touring is necessary to break you beyond your market, but as long as you are pursuing other money making avenues such as festival and college bookings, sync licensing, publishing and merchandising, you can have a firm enough financial foothold that will allow you to make the right deals with club bookers so you can get out on the road and keep your fanbase growing.
|
|
