I am booking a show, and the first 3 bands I asked to play are really slowing me down. They all said “let me ask the band and get back to you!” and I am still waiting for about 5 days now. I am afraid to turn interested bands away cause they waited too long to reply, but at the same time waiting on these 3 bands is burning valuable time when i have a list of 20 other bands that might be available. I am afraid to run into a situation where a band finally agrees to play and I have to say they took too long to respond and i filled the spot. I also want to get our flyer on the internet because the weekend of the show doesn’t have any competing events and I’d like to keep it that way. The anxiety of feeling this urgency and having to wait on these bands is killing me. Does anyone else have experience with this and can offer some advice on how to navigate this?
What is the best way to find bands willing to play a show without waiting too long for people to respond?
Just follow up and say “hey I’m trying to get this lineup confirmed, can you let me know if you’re available?”
Never be afraid to communicate directly & clearly in the music world. It’s a rarity and what will separate you from the majority. If you’re on top of shit and a good communicator you’re already leaps ahead most musicians tbh.
Absolutely! I always try and be responsive as possible. Thats why i’m confused why bands aren’t getting back. but you’re absolutely right I shouldn’t be afraid to follow up either
I’d have zero feelings about telling a band they missed the opportunity because I had a date to fill.
Call your first three and ask them if they’ve got an answer. Tell them that, since the date is approaching, you’ll need to fill the slots so no response will soon become a “no”.
Contact a couple of the other bands and tell them the truth:
I have a gig coming up on X and there may be slots open if the other bands can’t make it. Would you be available and interested in being considered an alternate for that date? I’ll let you know by Y.
Oh, and welcome to the fun world of being a promoter for semi-professional, local-tier bands.
great advice. thanks! yeah i’m dipping my toes in lol
Where I am, if someone asks you to play, you might have a day or two to reply, before the space gets filled by another band. Give them 2 days. It's not hard for a band that's somewhat serious about playing to get a hold of their band mates to check schedules. If there is no answer, move on to the next band until someone says yes. If you have to keep prodding someone for an answer, they're not interested. But having said that, you have to be precise with the info you are giving out as well. If you are vague with your details about the show, you will have a hard time getting people to commit. Put some urgency in your messaging. Let them know you are on a timeline and they need to let you know by a certain time.
Great answer!
"Can you play this show on this day? I need to know before X date" and if you don't hear by then, too bad for them
Also maybe your planning is too last minute. Maybe these folks need time to ask for days off work, arrange with their family etc.
reach out and tell them that you need to start asking other bands so you can get this set up, either they’ll get back to you sooner or they aren’t that interested/motivated
as the person in my band—and also my one man band—who books all our shows and runs our social media and works 50 hours a week i don’t really have time to wait..
exceptions for shows months out or if i have most of the bill set and i just need one buddy’s group to confirm childcare or something but if it’s internet randos you don’t owe them anything, including an explanation beyond ‘sorry, you took too long to respond’
wouldn’t be the first time they’ve missed out if this is their standard operating procedure
Speak with them on the phone, not email or text, and set a deadline to confirm (“have a chat with your friends and let’s speak again, say tomorrow at 12:30?”)
Great advice, a lot of this communication happens over instagram through band pages.
I agree with this method, and also let them know that you're building a short list, so that they are aware there is some competition. Frankly I would reach out to all 20 at once and ask who is available, make the short list, and then start pruning from there.
FYI when I was gigging if we got an opportunity our leader would text us that night. I think it's nuts that people are taking days to get back to you ... I wonder if maybe some of them have a player who can't make that date and are trying to arrange backups or something. That, or maybe your opportunity just isn't all that appealing to them.
Especially the part about setting a follow up time. thanks!
Tell them “I need an answer by ……..” If you don’t get an answer, book someone else.
It should not take anyone five days to hear back from everyone in their band about their schedule, unless someone is in a coma. That's some amateur hour type stuff you're dealing with.
That said, a day is reasonable, because people have work and family life and can't always drop everything to respond; two days is generous. As a band leader, I begin to get nervous when I have not heard from my full band within a day, and that rarely happens. Two days is the absolute outside. They know to check their messages at least daily.
What I will do when I haven't heard back from everyone (but have heard that most of us are available) is to contact the booker and let them know that I'm reasonably certain, still waiting to hear from the holdout, but would like to go ahead and pencil it in, to confirm shortly.
However, if someone in my band holds me up for longer than two days, there will be some terse discussion about it. You would be well within the realm of reasonableness to move forward and book someone else, and it will be a powerful lesson for whoever screwed this up in my band by dragging their heels.
That's not really a thing you can just parse for. The only consideration you might be able to make when looking for that is observe the number of people in the band- the more members, the more likely it is you'll have to wait longer to hear back from them lol. I'm friends with the duo in my city who have commented on this before like "it's really easy for us to figure out gigs when asked because we just text/call the other guy and say "hey man, you in?" and it's either "yeah" or "nah" right away."
Otherwise "let me check in the with the band and get back to you" is going to be a common response and depending on the weakest link/flakiest communicator, sometimes that can take a while. The drummer in my band is notoriously bad- he swears he doesn't have the band chat muted, but he hardly ever replies to messages in it, including asking him directly about availability. You have to like direct text or call him and even then sometimes it's hard to shake an answer out of the mf in a timely fashion. As others have said don't be shy about following up after a day or two if you're not hearing back from someone.
Another angle to consider is it's better to try and book shows well in advance if possible so that waiting a few days to hear back from someone isn't going to make or break the advertising effort. If you're trying to cobble people together last minute then you're probably better off casting a wide net and taking the "sorry you took too long to reply and I'm on a crunch" approach. I've done this before- I usually ask the target number of bands first, wait a day or two, and then invite a couple more if I haven't heard back. Then wait a day or two and invite a couple more. And so on. The only other band on our bill dropped on us last minute and we had like a week to find a replacement so just waiting around wasn't an option lol. If you fill the spots and are still waiting to hear back from other folks, the polite thing to do is to just reach out at that time and explain. "Sorry, just so you know the bill filled up today. We'll try to get you on another time again, though!"
Great advice. Thanks! this is pretty last minute unfortunately due to circumstances out of our control
just ask a lot of bands that you would want to play and go with the ones that get back with you first. if someone takes too long that is their fault.
Simple answer. Hard deadlines. I need an answer by this date.
Depends on when the snow is happening. If it's soon,.tell them you need to know soon. Give them a deadline to get back to you.
Be firm and assertive.
Tell them straight up "look if you guys pass I need time to ask other bands so I need to know."
When I used to book I’d say hey can you do X date. Please let me know in 3 days or I will have to move on. In your case maybe reach out again and then say sorry, we had to move forward without you.
In the very first communication with the band, let them know the exact time and pay. Tell them you need to fill a spot, and need an answer within 48 hours. Don’t waste time with a back and forth that’s just gig details.
I just did went through this. Two people in the project were both asking multiple bands if they wanted to get on a bill with us. In asking each band we let them know we were talking to multiple other bands and needed to know ASAP. We even gave them guidelines as to set times and what was expected of them but made it clear the first ones to commit won the spot.
The first band to confirm got the gig and we had to let the others know it was no longer available., Everyone got back to us saying they understood and looked forward to playing with us in the future.
We lucked out in that the first band to commit will have the largest draw by far.
I play out fairly often and have a large network of bands that want to play with us. We are all friends and colleagues as well and see each other out at other shows. But it's still amazing how many are unavailable when I offer them a show on a bill. But to me this is the best way to know bands to ask to play on a show
I don’t have any advice bc I find this part of booking really torturous bc i cringe to tell someone they missed out, thanks for posting about it, makes me feel less alone
I assume you're already in talks with the next 3 bands, right?
Just check some back ups for availability and be honest with the OG 3: You can't afford to wait any longer and need a reply ASAP, and there is always the next show if that doesn't work out.
Depending on the types of shows you’re booking you may want to book through an agency. No one asks me if I want to play, my agent just books it and I see on my calendar that I’m busy that day.
I appreciate the advice, we are a local band with about $200 in our band fund. I am setting this show up at a local bar. So I want to handle this without paying someone else. I guess my question is more about how do I approach the other bands I am asking without getting stuck waiting for their responses, or having to turn them away. I need a way to ask as many bands as possible without offending anyone if I have to tell them I already filled the show
Maybe you could mention in your messages to them that you’ve reached out to multiple artists and that the first response will get the booking?
Sorry I can’t be more help, I haven’t done much on the booking end.
This is probably what I should have done, i guess i thought people would be more responsive. thanks!
Most people put it in a band group on Facebook then say DM me don’t comment, then in the dms you get them to sell themselves to you and reply slowly with the decision
It sounds like bro that you need to be a little patient, which admittedly sounds difficult because you're waiting on responses to move forward.
I just know how my band work and sometimes it's not easy to get responses from 4 or 5 dudes in a band. They got lives, jobs, and a family. A good band ought to give you an answer within a day though. I think that's reasonable.