Dealing With Promoters
Great advice from one of the Midwest’s top promoters, 1% Productions
By Sarah Legg

For up-and-coming bands, building a killer fan base is imperative to fueling success. For a band to gain a following, it has to play shows. For a band to grow beyond its comfortable home-venue, it must tour. And for a band to tour, it has to work with promoters.

One-Percent Productions is the indie mainstay promoter in Omaha, Neb. The company got its start in 1997, when Ani DiFranco came to town. After a short 18-month hiatus from 2000 through 2001, 1% has put on hundreds of shows non-stop since February of 2002, when Marc Leibowitz and business partner Jim Johnson booked Wesley Willis. One-Percent works closely with the Sokol venues in South Omaha, but has also worked with O’leaver’s Pub and the now-defunct Cog Factory. The pair has hosted acts such as Death Cab for Cutie, The Faint, One Man Army and Rilo Kiley.

Leibowitz, co-owner of 1%, has a few tips for bands working with promoters.

“The advice I would give those bands (without representation of a booking agent) is that it’s not really that important to befriend promoters,” he says. “What you want to get in with is other bands. You want to research the market, figure out what bands have the similar styles that you do and contact that band and see if you can do a show trade. ‘We will book you in our town and you book us in your town,’—that way you both play in front of crowds.

“With us,” he adds, “we don’t really have time to go scout for new talent whether it’s local, or regional. We rely on the other bands to bring us that new band.”

Leibowitz urges bands to remember that contacts can make all the difference.

“It is still a little bit of a who-you-know business, and I think it’s better for (band members) to know other bands,” he admits. “If someone randomly emails me or contacts me and drops some band’s name that we work with, and that band vouches for them (and says they’ll play that show,) that goes a lot further than them just saying ‘Hey, we want a show.’”

If a person is going to name-drop, he says, that band better know who that person is, or that person will never get a show.

Another way a band can catch the attention of a promoter is through a press kit. A press kit, however, doesn’t always mean a nice folder with a full-color glossy photo of the band and the band’s record.

“I think that if you’re going to send a press kit, it better look good,” he warns. “Most press kits get thrown into a box that I have, and very few of them I actually check out. If they look really good I’ll check them out.”

Leibowitz admits that he doesn’t shy away from email, like many promoters.

“There are still some people who want to be on the phone all of the time,” he says. “Someone can send me an email with a link to a MySpace page or with a link to somewhere I can hear a song, and that’s good enough for me. I don’t need to have a fancy presentation. Nothing that this band’s going to send me is going to convince me they’re huge, all I want to do is hear it.”

If a band is going to send an entire record, Leibowitz says, it better point out the songs it wants to be represented by. He says that if a band doesn’t point out what songs it wants a promoter to hear, that promoter may miss out on what a band has to offer.

“MySpace, as far as I’m concerned, is a press kit,” he says. But, one should remember that making 5,000 friends on Myspace doesn’t make a band book-worthy. The music should speak for itself.

“[Press kits] need to be short and simple,” he advises. “I need a one-sheet and a CD, and I don’t want a burned CD. If you can’t afford to press a record, then you probably shouldn’t be touring.”

When a band does get a show with a promoter, the next thing is negotiating a fair deal for money. Asking for a guarantee isn’t always a great idea for an up-and-coming band, but a band shouldn’t play for free.

“[The money] obviously depends on the show,” Leibowitz says. “In general, I will not give any band a guarantee that is not represented by an agent—they will be playing for a percentage of the door. Most bands that have done multiple tours and have been to your town before probably have an agent. Even if it’s a bad agent, they have an agent and they’re not booking the tour themselves anymore.

“Any band that is up-and-coming and hasn’t played your town,” he adds, “shouldn’t be asking for a guarantee. There is absolutely no reason to believe anyone will be at that show.”

He says that those up-and-coming bands should be paired with local bands from that market who have a draw. Most local bands will understand that when they bring in a band, the visiting band will receive more money at that show, and through a show-trade, that band will in turn get their exposure to a new market and money at the out-of-town show. Another good reason for a band to get to know that market’s local bands is the “free promotion” that local band can do when the out-of-town band isn’t there.

So remember, as with any other profession, it’s a who-you-know industry. Make it work for you, not against you.