People start booking agencies without the slightest concept of what it takes to do the job properly. They are inexperienced, they might be incompetent, they might be dishonest, and they might be insane. Only the first of those 4 possible attributes are curable. Many people get surprisingly far in the business with some combination of those attributes; they leave behind them a broad wake of hurt feelings and broken dreams.
Other people that can make your life miserable: 1. Agents -- a good rule is that you should never book anyone who has a personal manager, unless you can't live without that booking. For some reason, once an artist in electronic music becomes big enough to afford and need a personal manager, they almost always end up with someone who seems to think it's their job to make every contact with that artist a living hell. 2. Promoters. What do people with even less experience, competence, moral fiber, and grip on reality than booking agents do? They promote shows. 3. Venue Owners: You run a bar, dude. You get rich off everyone else succumbing to their own worst impulses. Yet that somehow gives you a license to be a giant douche? I don't get it. 4. Artists. Why do some people reach a certain level of success and become temperamental, unreliable, whiny little bitches? I thought you worked to become a success to make yourself happy. They seem to achieve some success and then let the giant bug up their azz take the wheel. Now there are exceptions to those descriptions, and when you find people that behave professionally and are pleasant to deal with, stick to them like glue. There's a reason Windish Agency seems to be the only booking agency of consequence in the US -- they are good business people and they don't screw around. That's why every year Coachella might as well be called the Windish Music Festival. On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 10:20 AM, Odeluga, Ken <ken.odel...@dowjones.com> wrote: > LOL. > > I agree partly with Klass Jan. > > [Many] booking agents are evil! :-) >
