JPF Home Page Forums Just Plain Folks Roadtrips Music Venue Forum DISCUSS: Are agents locking up venues in your town

I'm getting bugged finding more and more restaurants are just turning their music over to a local agency, and booking the artists from their roster. If I inquire about sending in a demo, participating in an open mic, etc. I'm told, no, you have to be with Agency X or you can't get a booking at that place. Of course, I pitch the agency and am told, "Sorry, we have all the artists we can use, thanks."

Is this a thing now? Agencies have always been part of the game, but I thought they competed along with bands and artists pitching themselves. Restaurants with live music are declining anyway, so I wonder if the net effect is for one agency to essentially lock up an entire market!

Is anybody tracking this as a trend across regions or the nation? I feel like I need an education on this, how about you?

It's been a problem for a while. Live Nation put a stranglehold on venue performance slots/opps for quite some time because they controlled the only established music clubs in town. Sadly the area of town where all the best clubs were down several blocks all together got turned into DJ/Playlist only dance clubs. 4 clubs in a row that used to feature Country, Urban, Folk/Singer Songwriters and Rock Bands all because discos. This was in the 2000-20005 time frame. It killed people's urge to see live music and those clubs mostly all failed and as the neighborhood completely gentrified, all the artists moved to affordable places and the entire scene just disappeared.

What you are describing sounds like a smart entrepreneur decided to band a collection of artists together and represent them and he has cornered the market. What you need is a competitor. It would require getting some bankable artists (people who can fill venues) who only work for your agency and then go and compete. Find out what they are offering. My guess is he has vetted high quality artists and come up with standardized fees etc. so it makes it super easy for the venue to book an artist who will please their crowds and often will boost their door traffic. Those are things artists have to be doing to compete these days and frankly always should have been doing.

I think you can beat em, but you have to go to battle with a winning hand.

Brian

It’s happening in the Lehigh Valley. Between agents locking up venues and the group of area musicians not wanting to let outsiders like myself (a home owner in the area for 17 years now) in to their scene. A few of them have been helping me and in a few cases some special area music scene heavy hitters have been helping me now and then.

This is something that is not new. Pretty much every area in music has always had agents that controlled their territory It's sort of why there are agents to begin with. You can go back to the 40's, 50's, 60's etc. and find that there were always companies like the WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY that territorially controlled everything. For a venue owner, it makes sense as they have a lot of things going on ,so having an agency that weeds out people makes sense.

The problem you are really having is the amount of artists that are trying to do this now. Before the Internet, there was usually a pecking order and ways to work yourself up, before you could get an agent, and some form of abilty was needed. Now it is an "EVERYBODY CAN DO IT" world. Millions of people have been put into the pipeline, so there is an enormous logjam.

But you really need to know what is nessasary now. A FOLLOWING. If you can demonstrate you can put people into seats, eat, drink, populate the venue you will get some attention. Probably the agency will want to book you. But till you can do that, even the best agency is going to be hard pressed to include you and the venues will probably not put you in anyway.

There are a lot of problems now. Covid is the obvious one. More and more venues have completely closed or have no abilty to have customers in the first place. Many will never re-open. People are also less inclined to even go out right now, or even can in many areas. Then, the increased competition, less incentive to pay for anything, the advent of open mic, karaoke nights where amatuers or the audience have taken over as the entertainment. Not to mention increased costs of operating a place to begin with are really taking their toll on live music in general.

What you might look at is trying to find the places that are doing live music, and see if you can sit in. There is nothing like a live audition and actually meeting and interacting with the owner or manager. It is sort of like worming your way in and not easy to do, but it does happen. Sometimes venues might allow someone toward the end of the night to get up, do a song or songs, during a break or with the permission of the act sometimes they might suggest they come in early. Sometimes not, sometimes they do. Just have to take a chance.

But basically you really have to understand that all the landscape of music has changed forever. That is why reality television shows, contests, etc. have come into being. It's mostly a younger person's game.

You need to make sure you do your own "off the field" work. Make sure you have a good following of friends, family, people that will show up to support you so that you can tell the venues you are going to help their bottom line. That is really what they are in business for. Show them you can do that and you'll get some bookings.

MAB

My area has never been the best for fostering a burgeoning live music scene. Whatever music scene there is isn't really happening unless you are a cover band or if the place is hosting a karaoke night. I live in a beachy area, so that might be why. The venues want music that people already know. Get out of your car listening to the top 40 station, and hear the same music when you go to a music venue or a bar.

There are local open mic nights but a lot of them went away because of COVID. There was an open mic night that I frequented with a really happening scene but the venue (a restaurant) isn't hosting that open mic night anymore, even though venues are open again. Unfortunately, many open mic nights around here don't stick around. Which is unfortunate because it's the only time you really get to hear other local musicians, especially ones that play original music like me. The most popular open mic night in this area, and the one that's lasted the longest, has good people who I enjoy getting to know, but I've never felt welcome there.

Also, the places that do host open mic nights around here are restaurants or bars. People talking over you constantly. So, not the most attentive audiences.

To be honest, I've stopped trying to book gigs in my area. People don't get back to me, plus I have the same issue with agencies, etc. Many aren't' accepting new clients. It's a catch-22. How are you supposed to get an audience and be assured you can put butts in the seats if you don't get the chance to actually perform?

Frankly, it's an uphill battle and I'd rather not fight it.

So I perform regularly on a website called Twitch.

I started streaming live concerts on my Twitch channel in 2019, but took a year off because I moved, life stuff, job burnout etc. I've gotten back into it and now that my schedule is more regular, I'm starting to grow my audience. And I get people from all over the world watching regularly. I'd rather have that, knowing I can pop online at any time to perform, than try to fight with something I don't really have control over.

Also, the Twitch channel in question is here.

Just caught the last 2 songs in your set, very nice

Don't be shy lol. You should post an invite in "Musicians message forum" as a continuing thread... There's generally not much traffic this far down on the home page.

Welcome to JPF!

Hello and thanks for the welcome!

Also, yay for coming by my Twitch stream to check it out! Much appreciated! I'm streaming again tomorrow night at 7:30 PM EST!

There are so few venues still open that it will never nurture a new generation of live performers. Youtube has become the only avenue for young talent to reach their audience (along with other social media platforms). But the era of large live stadiums not made for sports is likely going to have to reinvent itself or it will run out of talent to justify the size and scale of the large outdoor venues. Already they are having to combine multiple major acts just to sell tickets and those acts ARE DROPPING LIKE FLIES.