How to Become a Successful Music Promoter

How to Become a Successful Music PromoterHow to Become a Successful Music PromoterAre you organized, great with people, and have a deep love of music? Have you been wondering how you can combine your skills and passions together to become a music promoter? As one of the most popular music industry careers, a music or concert promoter is in charge of booking, organizing, promoting, and hosting musical performances at concert halls, clubs, events, and various other venues. How to Become a Music Promoter If you want to work in independent music, becoming a concert promoter might simply involve taking the leap and booking your first show. If you want to work in larger venues and with larger artists, becoming a promoter often involves doing some work with an established company and working your way up the company ladder.Here, we look at two different paths to becoming a music promoter. Path One- Work for a Promotion Company Concert promotion companies, such as AEG, tend to handle promotion for big-name artists. They may plan festivals, stadium/arena shows, or they may work for specific music venues, handling all of the promotion of shows for that location. If you learn the ropes at such a promotion company, you may start out doing very basic things, like distributing flyers/posters for events and work your way up to being the lead promoter on events. You may also specialize in advertising, accounting or some other facet of putting on an event. Some of the pros and cons of working for a promotion company include Getting to work on major events/with big-name artistsOften mora lucrative than indie promotingNo personal financial risk for showsMay have to work with music genres you dont personally enjoyCan be a hard business to break intoMay take a long time to climb the company ladder Path Two- Working for Yourself/Indie Promoting Sometimes, getting started in concert promotion is as simple as booking your first show. Where there are musicians, there is a de mand for people to promote live shows for them. All it takes is a few successful shows to make your phone start ringing off the hook with calls from people who want you to put on their show.Some of the pros and cons of working for yourself/Indie promoting include Getting to pick and choose the shows you want to work onYou are the boss from day oneYou may carry the majority of the financial risk of a showLots of responsibility and wearing many hats, all of which require a large time investmentAdvancement can be difficult- you may end up in a cycle of promoting small club shows that dont allow you to make a lot of money Which Is the Right Path for You? There is no right answer here. It is a matter of personal preference and of course, your career goals. If you crave the excitement of putting on a music festival or working on arena shows, then working for a promotion company is a great way to get started. If you like working with indie musicians and labels, then working for yoursel f may be the best way to get started. Consider your end game and choose the path that leads there.Either way, its important to know that both paths depend on finding the initial funding required to promote a concert or event, be it through the backing of a large promotion company, your own investments, through fundraising or seeking others who will share in the overall expenses (and in return share in the profits as well).