Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a music promoter? It’s not as easy as shooting and uploading videos on YouTube and hoping for the best – a by-product of today’s technology and streaming giants like Apple and Spotify. A music promoter is a person who gets paid to organize live musical performances, often at nightclubs or concert venues. Music promoters are usually given a certain budget to pay the musicians and cover other expenses, such as advertising for the event. With the rising popularity of music festivals in and around larger UK cities, many aspiring music and concert promoters hope to get their foot in the door. However, few are successful because they are either unable or unwilling to do what it takes to succeed at being a promoter. To be successful at being a music promoter you must have business acumen, experience in event planning and management, good people skills and plenty of determination.
What are the expectations?
Becoming a successful music promoter has many responsibilities. He/she is responsible for booking artists to perform at various venues, promoting the show to their followers through social media channels and other means, collecting money from ticket sales, organizing stage hands, directing traffic during performances and ensuring that all laws are followed. A music promoter’s job starts when an artist contacts him/her with a proposal of what he/she wants to do. The promoter will contact promoters of other venues in the area who will be interested in hosting the event. The extent of the responsibilities are broad to say the least, but this is not to imply that the job is unrewarding. There are many ways to become a music promoter. It is not as simple as just calling up a venue and getting them to agree to have an event. You need the right connections, the right musical contacts, you need to know how things work in your area, and you need some experience under your belt.
How to actually do it
Essentially, there are two ways to become a music promoter; you could elect to work in a junior role at a well-established music promotion business, or you could go it alone and start from the bottom. The last option shouldn’t deter you too much, as a large faction of the business revolves around personal relationships and your capacity to entice fellow musicians to buy into your vision, and your love of their music. The industry is littered with music promoters who walked the streets and went to clubs and pubs with copies of their client’s music, asking that the owners of such establishments just take a little time out to play their client’s music. In today’s climate of hyper technology it’s also important to remember that online technology hasn’t just changed the game, it’s also changed the game for musicians and promoters alike. In the old days, a music promoter had a lot on his/her shoulders, but in today’s climate of technology, compliments of social media and music streaming companies, the artist can do a lot on his/her own. However, the job of the music promoter is not one that will ever become redundant. In fact, there’s nothing stopping a music promoter from trying to perform a market analysis on the rest of music industry in order to ascertain the best ways of generating an income.
You must understand your client
Being a music promoter isn’t just about making sure that your client’s beats are making it onto radio, which still happens to be the most effective way to get the music out there, it’s also about forging a personal relationship based on a genuine belief in the work of the artist. As a music promoter, your job is to understand the needs of your clients. Let’s say you are organizing an event for an upcoming charity act which includes two artists; one who is on the rise and another who has already established his or her following. You can’t charge them both the same amount of money because they will need different resources to perform successfully. It’s all about relationships and understanding the artists you’re punting.
