Agents - Are they worth it?

Mark1960

Hi Folks - I'm looking for some feed back from people who have had experience with agents. We are an established covers band, and do around 12 gigs per year, mainly WMCs, Private Hires, Summer festivals, and the odd pub gig, but we are looking to get out and play more gigs, unfortunately we are all busy people with jobs / families, and I wondering if getting an agent would be the answer and have the follow questions.

1) What % do they usually take?

2) Who sets the price of the gig, the band or the agent (with his cut)

3) Are we committed the every gig he puts forward

Basically I'm interested in how it all work in a typical case.

Any insights would be much appreciated.

EricTheWeary

When I had dealings with agents there were basically two types: one who expected us to be be available, pro looking media stuff, etc and the other who was booking on behalf of venues and effectively every band on their books put their name forward for whatever was appropriate so it didn't matter if you did one gig a year.
There are certainly venues ( and sometimes whole chains of pubs/ venues) you can't really play unless via an agency. Probably just scope a bunch of agencies out, see if any look likely for you. 
IIRC there wasn't a % , they had their fee and you had yours and you didn't necessarily know what they got. This is agents booking on behalf of venues, not agents booking venues on behalf of bands. 

Danny1969

We've got a couple of agents, they can be very handy for getting you in certain venues or with companies that organize corporate do's ... that's generally where the money is. 

The agent sets the price, you do the calculations and decide if it's worth it. 
Ours take 10% of the gross fee, there's no deal to be exclusive to them or to take everything they offer. They only thing frowned on is if they get you in a venue and then you try to bypass the agent for the next gig in the same venue. 

I'm in 3 bands, 2 covers band and a tribute. The agents are invaluable to the tribute but useful for the covers band too. 

ESBlonde

Some gigs will only ever come from agents. When a secretary needs a band for a function her boss has elected to arrange the agent is their port of call. Only proven acts get those and likely get messed about. But they pay very very well (£,000s). Holiday camp chains have an ents. manager who is usually a wannabe artist and won't spend time seeking band's so the agents are used. Typically the venue use one agent exclusively. Weddings again can come from posh families via agents. Set your price and the agent adds comm on top.

Mark1960

Thanks for the input guys!