Small-Time Booking Tours (Oct-Jan '14)

READ CAREFULLY.

1. 99% of the gigs booked will be door deals, suggested donations, or rarely a free show if we think it will be good exposure for you.  Sometimes a venue will offer a small guarantee or a food/beer tab.  That's great.  You're lucky if they do.  Our primary concern is making sure that you have a gig at all.  It is YOUR JOB to make sure you promote and get people in the door if you're concerned about making enough money.  If you think your band has to have a $500 guarantee at every show, then we aren't the right agency for you.  

That isn't to say that gigs with guarantees never happen, they do, but it's important for you to have a realistic ideaabout what to expect, which is the money you earn will primarily be based on how many people come to see you.  

Let us restate this so it's perfectly clear:  We can make NO FINANCIAL GUARANTEES for your shows.  

2. Give us EXACT DATES.  We cannot and will not book anything for you if you come to us saying: "Yeah, my band is kind of sort of thinking of doing a tour this summer or maybe in the fall.  Can you help?"  Sadly, no, we can't.   

We can't do anything for you until you are LOCKED IN to your tour dates.  However, if you tell us: "Hey, we're doing a Midwest CD release tour from August 10th - 25th, starting in New York and ending in Minneapolis.  Can you help?"  Then yes, we would love to. Once again, DO NOT contact us if you don't have your EXACT DATES planned out.

Please note that dates are locked in, but routing is flexible. We will do everything possible to route you through your preferred city, but if it doesn't look like it's going to pan out in that city, we reserve the right to reroute to another city that is a reasonable alternative.  Basically, if it's the same amount of driving for the same basic type of gig, we call that a reasonable alternative.

3. Dates CANNOT be changed, cancelled or rescinded once the work begins or we we will hold you responsible for our fee, regardless of the status of the show. 

On rare occasion, in the case of some act of God or family emergency, we will work with you to reschedule, but seriously, don't expect this unless some serious shit is going down.

Please understand that this is the only way we can be sure to get paid for the work being done, since we do not ask for a retainer up front.  

If a gig is taking a long time to come together, and you feel the inclination to take it back and book it yourself- sorry, can't do it. We generally will turn the date back over if we haven't had any success within 4 weeks from the show, but if we have a solid lead going, we do reserve the right to hang on to it and see that out.  

Dates also cannot be canceled AFTER they are booked without incurring a cancellation fee of $50.  

Sounds steep? It is. Our venue relationships are everything to us, and in most cases venues are taking a risk by taking on unknown touring bands, so the last thing we want to do is cancel gigs on them that were booked in good faith.  Again, acts of God and family emergencies will be taken into account. 

Keep all this in mind before booking us for a tour.  Hopefully we are driving this point home:

If you think there is any reason the dates might change, don't book it with us!

4. Have a respectable website or at least a Facebook/Reverbnation page.  We can't sell you to a venue if you don't have a legit looking web presence.   

This means (A) have WELL PRODUCED recordings.  If you don't have these yet, you are not ready to begin touring.  

Have (B) quality YouTube videos.  These days, a real YouTube presence goes a long way toward making your band seem like they've got some traction.  Any decently shot video of a well attended live show is a great place to start.

Also, you must have (C) PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS.  Live photos are ok, but pro band shots, posters and album artwork go a long way towards making you look like a "real" band/artist.  

Also, your web page should have a (D) WELL WRITTEN BIO about you.  That means anything remotely impressive you can say about yourself presented in complete sentences.  Who have you played with?  Have you gotten any good press? How many albums have you put out?  Where have you toured?  What cool venues or festivals have you played?  Don't be afraid to stretch the truth here and make yourself sound a little bigger than you might actually be.  Just don't make things up outright. 

If you contact us and we don't think your web presence is up to snuff to book decent gigs we will let you know. You can work on it and get back to us.   

5. This isn't a "rule", per se, but it helps if you have a reason for playing a show or touring in the first place.  If you're putting out a new album and are having a CD release show, that's great.  If you're putting on a fund raiser for some noble cause, that's wonderful.  Anything that will make your show stick out among the dozens of other inquiries that venues are inundated with each day.

6. Do not hire a competing booker, or work on booking shows yourself if you have hired us.  This will only lead to double bookings which would usually end up with shows falling through altogether.  

If you hire us, just let us do our thing and don't get in the way.  If we're working on a show/tour and you come to us  and say you managed to set up something yourself and we shouldn't worry about it anymore, we will have no choice but to hold you responsible for our fee, because the work has already been done.

7. College gigs and festival shows are not available for the Casual tour plan.  If you want to head in that direction, contact us about the Professional plan.  

8. There are no guarantees of any sort.  Don't freak out if nothing comes together.  Sometimes it just doesn't work out.  If it doesn't, we're both in the same boat since there are no retainers.

9. Payment is due 2 weeks after the invoices are sent out, which is generally on the 1st & 15th of the month.  Failure to pay within that time frame will result in a late fee of 10% of the total owed, or $50 if less than $500.  If payment is not made in full within two weeks of the gig, we will be forced to cancel the show, and continue to add late fees recurring every two weeks until the bill is paid. 

Please, the last thing we want is to charge you late fees.  When you make an arrangement with us, set aside the total amount for your tour so you don't wind up in a tight spot.  And, if you don't have the cash, then wait to hire us until you do. 

10.  We will not run venues by you before confirming the gig.  This makes things way too complicated and ultimately gets in the way of us being able to guarantee we will get paid for our work.  

The only promise we can make regarding venues is that we will never book you in an inappropriate space.  We don't book metal bands in coffee shops and we don't book singer-songwriters in metal clubs.  Furthermore, we never take a gig we wouldn't play ourselves give the same circumstances.  

11. PROMOTE YOUR SHOW.  We handle booking, you handle promo.  If you want to make money, get the word out and get people at your show.  Whether it's a door deal, a guarantee gig, or for suggested donations, if people aren't there, no one is happy.  Not me, not you, and certainly not the venue that went out on a limb to book you.

On rare occasion a venue will cancel a date due to lack of promotion.  If that happens, it's on you, and there will be no refunds from us.

12. If we book a show and the venue cancels after you have paid us due to some fault of ours, double booking, etc, we WILL give you a FULL REFUND. Scout's honor.