Geoff Meall is the Managing Director of The Agency Group (UK). He is also a member of TAG's Senior Global Management Team. His live roster includes Muse, Paramore and 主播大秀 Introducing supported duo,聽Gallery Circus. In the first of two blogs, Geoff offers up his take on how your act should approach working with a live agent and how they can help develop your career.
The question I鈥檓 asked more often than any other is: 鈥淚/we鈥檙e looking for somebody to help find us gigs. Would you be into helping us/taking us on/representing us?鈥�. I receive on average tens of completely unsolicited approaches/pitches from bands per day and I鈥檇 imagine that number would be pretty consistent amongst all my fellow agents. To be brutally honest at the stage I鈥檓 currently at in my career I don鈥檛 actually get round to listening to unsolicited approaches. I know that may sound tough, but in reality 99% of all unsolicited approaches are made by acts and artist who are not quite ready to be represented by one of the established agents/agencies.
I currently work with roughly 40 acts and that takes up all of my work time. On average I鈥檇 have at least half of them to be currently working or be in planning for future work and I only have so much time I can dedicate to my current clients. Naturally like all agents I鈥檓 always on the lookout for exciting new artists (and occasionally established artists who may be looking to change agencies) so always have my eyes and ears out for something new to be working. Who we do choose to work with however is an entirely subjective process.
In my case I have to like the act musically and聽feel they have potential to turn into a successful artist. It's important to know they聽have a great team around them including management and sometimes a label. The majority of agency signings would be artists signed to some form of label, but there are cases which I think are becoming more frequent of agencies taking punts on unsigned artists, who have underlying potential.
I鈥檓 a huge believer in if you鈥檙e good enough you will get noticed. This counts even more so today when social networks have made the world of the live music industry so much smaller. As an agent who regularly sends artists all over the UK I have built up a network of promoters across the country. They, alongside all of my other contacts in the UK industry, are the people who tell me about artists that are exciting locally to them. So make sure you start to build up a story in your locale and people will talk and that talk will reach the London based industry.
I always say to every artist who asks me what they need to do to get ahead is to get a good manager. Again, a totally subjective statement as what鈥檚 good for one person may well not work out for another. It does not necessarily mean that the big established management companies are right for every act too. There have been many examples I鈥檝e seen where a local contact or even friend can be and have become successful at managing artists I鈥檇 always want to be approached over an act by a manager not by the artist themselves
We spend the vast majority of our office hours sitting at a computer screen typing emails. For that reason an easily accessible stream of music is the best approach so it can be listened to/watched on the same computer. Soundcloud/YouTube are my favourites. Hit numbers are important on these platforms. I鈥檓 going to sit up and take more notice of an act who has thousands as opposed to tens of hits/listens, as that more than anything proves that something may be bubbling鈥� it鈥檚 not just the artists and close friends who are interested. Don鈥檛 send me CDs I haven鈥檛 even got a player anymore!! Please don鈥檛 send zipfiles that need downloading and as crazy as this sounds when you do send something through, name it properly so I know who鈥檚 sent it and what the tracks are called. I鈥檝e lost track of the amount of times I鈥檝e been sent unnamed tracks by unnamed artists. One final thing is to always make sure private links are accessible when sharing digital copies of your music.
Think about which agent you鈥檙e approaching, too. Look at the other acts they represent and see if the work they鈥檝e done and the people they represent would suit what you鈥檙e looking for. If you鈥檙e a metal act aim for the agents who specialise in metal and rock etc. You may be more likely to get noticed by a younger agent who is spending more of their time booking development acts too than a senior one. Although their experience levels are different, the younger agent鈥檚 keenness may work better for you in the long term than a senior agent who doesn鈥檛 have quite have the time you may need.
Agents are hugely important to any artist to whom live performance is a key element to their career. Through a bespoke plan they make with you/your management, label and other interested parties they鈥檒l open doors that would not be opened if you were booking yourselves. From finding the right venues and promoters to work with across not just the UK, but the world. An agent can聽source and help secure the right support slots on bigger shows and tours, and - when applicable - get聽festival slots for you. Any act who expects live performance to be part of their career needs an agent of course鈥� when the time is right. Good agents go above and beyond just booking shows and their hard work booking can be key elements of breaking an artist.
to read Geoff's next blog, taking a look at the journey of two of the acts he's worked with: Muse and Gallery Cirucs.