How to lose bookings and alienate your clients: The Story of Lexxi Paul Productions

This week I was auto-added on MySpace by an LA “promoter/booker” called Lexxi Paul Productions. After this, a funny and thought invoking chain of events unfolded that lead me to feel inclined to write about bookers and promoters. Before I dive into what actually transpired from this auto-add, I’d like to give you a little insight on what production companies/promoters/bookers actually are.

When you are a band and you start to play shows outside your hometown it can be difficult to book shows. See, it used to be harder than it is now with the advent of various social networking sites, but as you can imagine you wouldn’t know people, know venues to play at, or even know other talent to open for you if you are solo touring. Even in bigger cities where there is more competition, such as New York, Nashville, and here in Los Angeles it can also be very difficult to get a decent show booked on your own even if you are a local band. For these instances you might need some help getting all these things taken care of for you and getting your shows set up so you can hit the road and tout your craft. Enter booking agents. These are people who have a vast network (other promoters/bookers or direct to the venue) of people throughout the region, nation, or even the world who can take care of getting you or your band on the bill. That’s what they do. That is their purpose, bringing people together to get the band booked where they want to play.

If you dive even deeper, you need to get the word out that you are playing after you get booked right? Right. Better clubs have promoters who are people whose sole job is to get the word out about upcoming shows and acts to try and drive people to the venue and pay for admission, drinks, food or whatever. More popular clubs like we have here in LA really don’t have to do this as much because many clubs are destination spots that a lot of people will frequent no matter what. And believe me, they know this and charge a premium at the door! Some smaller venues, that don’t have the destination appeal, don’t have the capacity for this promoting element of the equations. Enter promoters. Promoters can blur the line between a booker and the official promotion arm of a venue. These people often have access to a venue and book a band(s) to play there for the venue like a hired subcontractor. These acts are set up to play at the venue on a certain date by this 3rd party in exchange for a predetermined reimbursement, monetary or other, from that venue. National bookers will sometimes use these smaller regional promoters to book their shows for them. A good example of this is Mike Thrasher Presents in Portland, Oregon who sets up shows like the Radio Rebellion Tour where the national booking agent for this particular tour would contact the regional promoter of their choice, in this case Mike Thrasher, who will then take care of all the booking for the region for the larger company and promote the show locally for the larger booker. In the end you would see a poster that says something like; Mike Thrasher Presents Radio Rebellion Tour featuring So and So Band (brought to you by Live Nation) or whatever the main company booking the show is. Now you know how it works, well how it is supposed to. Straight forward enough right?

Here in Los Angeles promoters who actually “promote” shows are few and far between. Somewhere along the line the promoters in this city decided that it was the solely bands job to tell people about the upcoming show. All the promoter was supposed to do was get the band put on the schedule to play at that venue at that time on this night. Some of the “bigger” bookers actually charge bands to play at premier venues in what’s called “pay-to-play” bookings where a band pays the promoter a fee (it can cost $800 sometimes) to play there that night and get their name out. A real pay-to-play booker would take that money and do things such as printing flyers and posting bills around town on the walls, having a street team blanket other similar shows handing out fliers talking about the show and driving traffic to it resulting in more cash at the end of the night for EVERYONE! That is, after all, what you are paying them for. But they don’t do any of that. They then punish the band and don’t book anything for them ever again when no one comes out to the show. But they got your cash, so they don’t care and they probably got what ever money they could from the door off the few people that did come!

There are three solutions to this problem;

1.) Don’t book with a pay to play promoter, there are ways to get into those venues with out using one, trust me.

2.) Use the money you would have paid that promoter to play there to do the work publicizing a different show somewhere else yourself. Go either direct to the venue or get a non-pay-to-play promoter to book you a show and give them a percentage of something. Keep in mind that they will need some kind of proof that it is worth there while. A lot of times they will make you pre-sell tickets to prove it, like “sell 25 of these or you won’t get paid” type of deal. These are bad too. Just say “look, if I don’t bring enough people, don’t book me again. And make sure you bring enough! I would never buy tickets from a band, I know its better for the band but most of my show choices are spontaneous decisions and I can never commit to anything that far in advance. Good venues or promoters where it matters how many people you draw will keep a tally usually at the door of how many people came out to see you and honest ones will pay you accordingly.

3.) Be proactive in everything you do with your band to make sure you are in demand and the promoters will come to you. If you have a decent management firm backing you chances are you will have an in-house booking agent or access to one that will have your best interests in mind and you’ll never have to really worry about this. But if you are unsigned or on a shitty label, you will. So self promote the fuck out of yourself! Get on message boards and talk it up! Call up magazines and get interviewed! All that fun stuff, eventually you will get a yes in the sea of No’s so just keep at it!

Now we have that all out of the way lets talk about the unprofessional and sorry excuse for a promoter that Lexxi Paul is. Upon being auto added I sent Lexxi a fun comment (They have messages disabled on their MySpace so if you are working with them you can’t even send them an email!) explaining to them that they are not what real bands are looking for. They book small venues and expect you to sell a certain about of tickets and promote the show yourself and draw a crowd. Well what the fuck do you need them for then? If you have to do all the work yourself you might as well contact the venue directly and book it yourself and take all the money. No sense in giving it to someone who did nothing and doesn’t deserve it. I would post what I sent them but I can’t because they had to be comments and MySpace doesn’t save sent comments (I deleted them after I sent the comments and they have a private profile, god knows why when it’s a business, so I can’t see them, although I doubt they approved them). Of course they replied and this is what they had to say:

“A. You are snot nosed who doesn't know shit about me and what I do. Ask the thousands of bands and you might figure it out. You are burning the wrong bridge. But I will just leave it at that.

You are a stupid piece of ugly shit, who wears his hair like a scene that went out 2 years ago!

Maybe you should learn to not burn bridges and maybe then you will get somewhere. Be advised this town is small and you will be remembered in the worst way possible.

oh and your little groupie fan tribute to bands in Warped Tour. Most of them are my good friends and I work it and my close friend books two of the side stages. Why don't you look at Brook's project and you will see. But you won't be playing those with that attitude. Again don't burn bridges. You never know who people know.

Faggot fuck face”

Classy.

Were going to work this finely craft list of bullets, and apparently letters they sent me.

First paragraph; I only had to ask one to hear about your reputation in this town. You are a nice person they said but you don’t actually do anything useful for the acts and you book small venues, all of which are too small for ANY of the acts I am associated with. Thanks for trying. And don’t worry I asked other bands, bookers, and agents and you do not have a fantastic reputation here. You’re just another leech trying to make a buck off bands. There are enough of you here already.

Second; Really? Well that’s ok and that maybe but while we’re talking business, let’s try and keep the focus on the issues on the table. If you have to resort to these kinds of tactics maybe you should revaluate your business model. You should have solid reasons why your method of conducting your business is superior to the ways I listed for you to change it. We can make fun of each others style after this has all been sorted out.

Third; I evaluated if I could afford to burn your bridge and I decided I could. You will never be in any position that would ever affect me in any way negatively. You are very small time, and since I am not in any real band there is no way it could ever effect me. Since the bands that I am associated with are already at a higher level than you are capable of booking you can’t harm them either. And the people I know that you know too, like me more than you because I am real and don’t try and take money from them. Again, thanks for trying, but it’s the other way around you shouldn’t be burning the bridge with me. You never know…

Fourth; That’s cute. You and your friend can book away on the side stages. My people only play main stage. Still burning…

Fifth: Real professional.

Good luck Lexxi Paul, I’ll keep doing things my way, and you do them yours. See how far it gets you.