managers

I recommend reading the section in the Donald Passman book on managers.

Obviously a manager can be great but is only as good as 1) The amount of interest and time he actually puts into your band and 2) His connections, skill, power in the "industry" (even indie music is an industry).

Paradoxically, the better your band is already doing, the more likely a good manager is to be interested. If you've been around a little while, played some good bookings, have good recorded material, maybe have a little press, then it couldn't hurt to try sending your demo to management companies of bands you know and like.

Passman says the ideal manager is either 1) Somebody big and well connected (relative to your level) or 2) Someone relatively new but smart and VERY interested in your band, i.e. he's hungry to succeed and will make your band his priority because he sees you as his "ticket."

Keep in mind also that managers take a cut of pretty much all the money you make.

Hm. It kind of sucks that anyone who is really into our band seems like they wouldn't be able to do much for us, and anyone who can wouldn't give a shit about our band. We'll fig it out.

One thing you can always do is use managers on a "trial" basis. This is done often. See if a manager is willing to help you book some shows and see how well they do. If they don't do so great at least you got some good bookings out of it.

We don't have a manager, but we've had some people help us out in this way, and we were joking the other day that we should just keep bouncing from trial manager to trial manager and never actually sign with anyone.

Pretending that you're the manager when calling/e-mailing for gigs and reviews, C/D?

Didn't we do a thread on that? I really doubt that pretending to be the manager makes a damn of a difference. If I were a booker, I don't think I'd distinguish between manager I've never heard of and band member.

doing everything yourselves as in... booking shows? trying to find a label? because if you're concerned with getting better shows, then i'd look into finding a decent booking agent.

booking a tour, finding a label, promoting crap, yeah

another question to ask: can some of these duties be delegated to individual bandmates?

If you find a label, they can hopefully help you book a tour and promote crap. So focus on that.

Finding a label? Yeah, the easy bit :(

mts - Can you get booking agents who will take on unsigned bands then? And what kind of deal will they offer? (I'm in the UK, by the way).

There are definitely agents who take unsigned bands. But keep in mind that a good agent wants to make money, which means they need to believe people will come to your shows.

booking agents will take on unsigned bands, if you're willing to pay their fees, of course.