I want to have some live performance ( electronic act ) and i ' ve contacted clubs with electronic scenes in West and East Europe , some responses are " we don"t book artists directly , we 're working only with booking agencies'' . what is your experience with clubs , any tips ?

 

start with local clubs and local festivals,
you'd be surprised they know well each other so it's much easier to make foreign scenes want you or know about you from their peers,
oh and always make sure you have good enough (live) footage so they have an idea who they're booking

 

I know but , not much ''action'' on non comercial electronic music in my area .

 

Post it on YouTube.

 

I got covered all social platforms , this is about contact promoters, clubs and booking agency for live performance .

 

Send them a live performance video.

 

well i have a booking agent now because its easier; but before that all i had to do was set up an EPK and send it - my booking agent does the exact same thing, it has all my credentials (social media following, venue capacities ive sold out, videos from live performances, etc.)

when i was a smaller artist, i didnt have as much; but i had a large following on social media for my music, that was all it took in the EPK; the couple shows i played before i didnt want to do everything myself, i got really easily - of course i live in the U.S. but thats all booking agents pretty much do in regarding to venues, is send EPK's and set up dates that match with the tour route

you also gotta keep it real with yourself, venues want to make bread (especially after covid). if youre not selling merch and likely to fill up the space, theyre gonna dodge you; theres levels to venues and its based on where you are in your career. if youre at the beginning stages and trying to grow, book shows at places on that level or reach out to bigger acts, see if they will let you open for them; it works, ive let people open for me from instagram DM's and liking their music - youd also be surprised by the places you can play at, like ive seen people book shows at whole foods

 

This is how the Windmill in London works, and most of the other established venues are the same. If you are good enough and know how to sell yourself, you will get a gig.

https://www.windmillbrixton.co.uk/band-info

You'll probably need to start off locally at a small venue though, and it could be a cafe, school, charity event, social gathering, shopping mall, bar, club, local festival, or even busking, etc., but everything should be planned around building a social media resume. You will also need to learn how the music networks work in each country that you are targeting. Once you get to places like the Windmill life will become a lot easier, as that is where the big record label scouts hang out.

You can also use a promo company like the one below to shoot a live music video for you. I often browse their new listings (as do the music industry professionals), and I have found some interesting stuff there.

https://www.youtube.com/@state51/videos

 

Last edited: May 20, 2024

Agencies are tricky to deal with. They're often cartels in which each of them in a particular area have so many clubs/pubs that they handle the entertainment for and they're careful not to step on each other's toes, though they do work together. Clubs/pubs that use agencies rely on them so they don't want to upset them, which will happen if they employ artistes directly. If this happens there's a good chance that the artistes working this way will soon find none of the clubs/pubs handled by this cartel will find work anywhere in the area. If an agent thinks you're good enough they will probably book you into a club/pub and watch you perform there. But one of the biggest downside to agencies is that it's in their interest to have a lot of artistes on their books so that they aren't sending the same acts to the same places too often, which means less work. And they will probably want 23% or more of the fee. This was my experience working the clubs in the UK 25 years ago and I would be surprised if anything has changed in the artistes favour, if anything I expect it's probably worse now.