In recent years, a lot of words incomprehensible to a simple person have appeared in the Russian language. They all came to us from the professional environment of managers and their environment. If you are planning a vacation or a festive event, then you may have a question: “What is booking?” This term is now widely known. We will deal with the meaning of this incomprehensible word and talk about the specifics of the work of booking agencies.
Two meanings of the word "booking"
In the literal translation, booking is “make an order or reserve a service”. This word is used by tourism professionals. In this industry, managers are engaged in hotel reservations and booking tours for clients. Most often, bookers in the tourism business work remotely through Internet sites.
What is booking, you can find out if you needed to organize a celebration or corporate event. After all, no holiday can be held without artists, hosts and DJs. It is worth noting that agencies and private bookers do not administer the event itself. Their task is to ensure the arrival of the artist at the place and time indicated by the customer.
Who are the bookers?
Entertainment industry experts often call bookers music managers. It is important for them to know the basics of economics and the intricacies of drafting contracts. They should also be able to agree on the most favorable conditions for their customers.
Booker is responsible for coordinating the process of providing artist services. Usually he has his own catalog of stars that work with him. Among them may be:
• dance groups;
• artists of the colloquial genre;
• professional presenters;
• singers;
• musical groups working in different genres;
• DJs.
Capital booking agencies are ready to deliver not only domestic, but also foreign stars to the event.
Who can become a booker
Only a person who has many connections in the entertainment industry can become a music manager. He must be a public and recognizable person with a crystal clear reputation. Only in this case, the stars of the first and second echelon will trust such an agent.
Not always booking stars is offered by individual managers. This service may be offered by:
• promotion organizations;
• event agencies;
• concert companies.
However, it is worth cooperating only directly with booking agencies. It is important for customers to know that many companies whose field of activity is the organization of entertainment events themselves use the services of booking specialists.
How to become a good booker
Booker must know the basics of economics and jurisprudence. He must fully understand what booking is. It’s good to have your own artist base and constantly improve. Specialists of one of the leading metropolitan agencies begin their careers from scratch. They study the profession using the McDonalds method, which argued that any top manager should spend at least one day in the kitchen.
Before learning to engage stars of the first magnitude, it is necessary to carefully study all the stages of booking. It seems that it is enough to succeed in this profession, only having connections, but in fact the process of booking the artist’s time is much more complicated. Domestic booking is distinguished by the need to delve into all processes. In any other country, it is enough to be able to sign contracts, and in Russia, a specialist must delve into all the details of the process.
One of the country's most famous bookers, Mikhail Yurkov, says that at the dawn of his career, he had:
• constantly learn;
• regularly attend metropolitan clubs and social events;
• meet artists at the airport;
• organize their check-in at hotels;
• attend sound checks;
• delve into the features of connecting equipment.
Only in this way can success be achieved. In the early years, working with a booker is extremely difficult and requires complete dedication. To achieve success, specialists should not count their fees, but think about the joy they give people.
Differences between booking and concert agencies
In the music industry, there are two types of work: inviting artists to one-time events and organizing tours. Many confuse concert agencies and booking agencies. The first are involved in organizing tours, that is, several performances at one or different venues. The second ones are engaged in one-time activities:
• festivals;
• parties;
• corporate evenings;
• weddings;
• celebrations on various occasions (anniversaries, anniversaries and relevant holidays).
Otherwise, these two areas of musical management are similar to each other. Both agencies have directories of performers with whom they collaborate. It is also important that bookers have links with large Russian and foreign agencies, where stars of the first magnitude are collected.
Unlike concert agencies, the area of work of booking companies is the club show business of Russia. They are mainly engaged in organizing parties, private events and festivals held in the city's nightlife.
Interaction with event managers
For those who have a large sum of money and can afford to order a performance of a domestic or foreign artist for the celebration, it is important that he fit into the overall concept of the event. Event managers are responsible for this. They create a script for the event and select artists who have the appropriate repertoire suitable for the occasion.
Further, the event organizers establish contact with booking agencies and determine those performers who are free on the corresponding date. The choice of the client completes the preparation. It is the end customer who determines which artist he wants to see at his holiday.
Features of the work of booking agencies in Russia
Show business in Russia has its own characteristics and specifics. Club entertainment projects have appeared with us relatively recently. Booking also differs from the European one, primarily in that this concept is much broader here. In the West, a booking manager only needs to contact the artist’s agent and specify the main points of the contract. We need a similar specialist to deal with all the logistics, from visa processing for Western artists, ending with a transfer from the airport to the hotel. A hotel room will have to be booked too.
How to work with artists
If an ordinary person does not know what booking is, he will find the artist’s contacts and write an email or call his manager directly. Now no one works on such orders. Usually the application remains unanswered. First-tier stars collaborate with about a dozen major booking agencies. It is easy to find a specialist to contact them by subscription.
Work with artists is carried out in two directions. The first is when managers track musical trends and popularity ratings. They make contact with the stars and offer their performances to the partners of the company. Partners are usually several venues (nightclubs or similar entertainment venues), which often order performances. After one of the partners approves the candidacy of the artist and proposes a date that will fit into the celebrity tour schedule, the stage of an active public relations campaign aimed at recouping the event begins. Promotion domestic bookers also often take their own hands.
The second direction - the client comes and makes an application for a particular artist or asks to choose several options for the event to choose from. In this case, the work of the booking specialist is less creative. It is necessary to negotiate with celebrity agents and look for ways of mutually beneficial cooperation.
How the crisis affects work with artists
In recent years, there has often been talk that booking in Russia is an unpromising direction. In fact, this is far from the case. In recent years, specialists in this field have experienced difficulties only because of the increase in fees of domestic celebrities.
A little more problems for the organizers of the performances of foreign artists. They often refuse to speak in the country, citing inconvenient dates or an inappropriate venue. A more frequent type of failure is a fabulous fee request. In the past two years, it’s very difficult to recoup the performance of some Western artists, as people try to spend less on entertainment. Only legendary stars of the world scene can attract the attention of the public.
Nevertheless, the capital's booking agencies have found a way out and are now actively inviting artists who are already gaining the love of the public to collaborate. They also do not lack talented DJs.