Don't Fool Yourself

The main focus of this blog is to make sure that you know THE TRUTH about this multi faceted music industry. We all spend our careers building credits as players, writers, producers or touring sidemen in hopes that all of our experience will amount to something when we decide to do our own projects. Most of us believe that if you make a great record and get great reviews that this will guarantee us an introit into the larger world of festival and multi venue bookings. Well... Don't fool yourself. I've spent many years touring, producing, consulting and directing careers. I recently produced a critically acclaimed duo CD in the blues category. The record is getting international airplay and we are still getting outstanding reviews, all of which have refereed to the music as groundbreaking, combined with the fact that we made it to the finals of the famed IBC (International Blues Challenge). Now I'm not trying to toot my own horn, I'm trying to make a point. With all of this notoriety, we also have a great live show but as you know it can be hard to get booked on festivals without the help of a booking agent. So with all of this perceived success we've had combined with our experience and performance resumes, we just figured it would make it easier for us to get involved with a booking agency. WRONG. Every major agency we spoke to asked us to submit a list of our tour schedule for the last two years and the amount of money we made. When we expressed to them that we were a new duo and we needed an agency to help us book dates and festivals. We were told that they would only book us if we had made at least $100,000 in touring revenue within the previous year. Now this really surprised us because the way we looked at it was if we had made that kind of money on our own, why would we need them? I was told that most artists build themselves to this level and then turn it over to a booking agency when it becomes too much for them too handle. LOL. This may be true but it was a sobering experience for us. The bottom line is nothing has changed. If you want something done, you still have to do it yourself. It doesn't matter how great of a record you have or how great of a live show, you still bear the burden of having to prove yourself and your worth. Your experience and know how is really only an asset to you so just use it to get to where you want to be. No need to spend any more time calling people expecting them to do something for you. Just do it for yourself and let them come to you and they WILL come. The bottom line is that no one is interested in helping you BUILD a house, they just want a room in it once it's built. That is cool too just as long as THEY can afford the rent. Enjoy the journey.

The Truth

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