An Open Letter from an Agent

Being an agent in the music industry is one of the most difficult jobs. You are a behind the scenes cog in the machine, and your entire position is directly correlated with the success of your clients. You will also be overlooked when they hand out the “Thank You” at the pinnacle of their career, and acceptance speeches should they get that far.

You are equally hated among musicians, booking managers, and event coordinators, and at the same time, you will constantly be calling in favors, working for “exposure” (not willingly most times), for any of the three. Your place in the big scheme of things is never cemented, because although you more than likely put in more man hours than most, at any given time, your success always hinges on someone else’s actions.

Let’s talk about the life cycle of the agent/client relationship.

You find an extremely talented musician or other entertainer and basically have to learn everything about them. If you don’t do an amateur profile of them in the beginning, your risk of failure quadruples over the long run. Sadly, even with FBI level profiling skills, you can still be burned once the artists begins to see success, because it changes people. You have to weigh not only the level of talent, which honestly doesn’t ensure success and if you don’t know this by now, you are kidding yourself, but also whether or not people are actually going to embrace their brand. This is tricky. You have to almost be a fortune teller to see months, even years ahead into the trends, or at least be able to grow and promote them to start one. Once you have determined you want to work with them, the next step is investment.

You will work thousands of man hours every quarter on your acts, and many of them with no compensation considering agents work for the most part on commissions or through contract percentages. These hours are behind the scenes, so you will also have to invest hundreds (if not thousands) of hours talking to irate clients who believe you aren’t doing enough free work for them. Sounds ridiculous reading that, but in this business, it is a reality. You aren’t charged with showing up to a location, loading and unloading equipment and instruments, and doing a set or two, so of course, you are doing nothing in the eyes of those who are. Your calls, emails, overcoming rejections (many times not because of your lack of skills, but because the venue doesn’t believe the audience will warm up to your clients) constant adaptation of work patterns, long hours, visits, money invested in promotions, and overall problem solving, becomes invisible when it is all said and done. They love you when you finally get them into a place they haven’t had before, but only for a few months. Their love of you is hanging on the crowd numbers (which is subject to weather, moods, competing events and everything out of your control), the willingness of the venue to rebook them, and their next booking. If you don’t have them an immediate fix, they can and will turn on you.

You work with some act for years, waiting out the points when their particular genre isn’t on top, and keep diligently generating a buzz about them. You work on ensuring the gigs played are successful and everyone is happy. You invest in them not only through hours worked but in helping them get what they need to grow. When you finally make headway, there is a short lived celebration before that high is gone and you are again despised for not maintaining the upward swing. More times than not, when you’ve finally seen success after years of hard work, is when you are at most danger of being dropped. This is the point where any advice you give or anything you say begins to offend the creative ego.

“The venue really wants a five piece, but the pay is amazing. Is there any way you can add a fifth member?”

“I realize you want to appear generous within the music community, but it may not be best for all involved if you invite someone to do a set during the break who hasn’t been approved by the venue.”

“If you continue to work for free, you are devaluing yourself and it makes it harder to ask for more during negotiations.”

An artist should always be able to decide what path their career takes, but there comes a point when you have to decide whether you truly want to be a professional musician or a hobbyist, and act accordingly. All artists have to live this truth, but when an agent is the one telling them, they become the enemy. The irony of this is the agent more than anyone else has worked for your success, talked you into believing in yourself, and made it their life’s work to make everyone else love you too.

Agents get burned too.

When you are working with creatives, the truth is they are dramatic and opinionated, and sometimes (most of the time) self-serving. It comes with the business. This industry is quick to chew you up and spit you out. They will use you for what they can get and then walk away more frequently than in other industries. They will also subconsciously justify this way before they go through with it. Agents are the ones that see you when you were invisible, stick by you during growth, and persuade others to see you too. The fact remains, the client repaying that loyalty once they see success, is about as likely as winning the lottery.

If you are a musician, and you are turned down or ignored by an agent, understand it isn’t really because you aren’t good enough. It’s more that the agent has to be so selective, so careful and protective of their time, it becomes impossible to take risks. If you are a musician and you aren’t prepared to adapt and change when necessary, don’t seek an agent. Go completely independent and handle everything yourself. If you are a musician and lucky enough to be working with an agent, remember what they have done when their work.

About the author:

Angela N. Vance is the owner of Virtuosity Agency in Memphis, TN.

Virtuosity Agency is a Memphis Booking and Management company out of Young Avenue Sound Studios in trendy Cooper Young in Memphis. Music Lovers, talking about music, the industry and all things related.