What is a booking? Domestic entertainment and show business

In recent years, many incomprehensible words for the common man appeared in the Russian language. All of them came to us from the professional environment of managers and their entourage. If you are planning a holiday or a solemn event, then you may have a question: "What is booking?" This term is now at everyone's ears. Let's look at the meaning of this incomprehensible word and tell about the specifics of the work of booking agencies.

Two meanings of the word "booking"

In the literal translation of the booking - "make an order or book a service." This word is used by tourism specialists. In this industry of business managers are engaged in booking hotels and booking tours for customers. Most often, bookmakers in the tourism business work remotely, via Internet sites.

What is a booking, you can find out if you needed to organize a celebration or a corporate party. After all, no holiday can be held without artists, leading and DJs. It is worth noting that agencies and private bookers do not administer the event itself. Their task is to ensure the arrival of the artist in the place and time specified by the customer.

Who are the bookers?

Specialists of the entertainment industry often call bookers music managers. It is important for them to know the basics of the economy and the subtlety of drafting contracts. Also, they must be able to negotiate the most favorable terms for their customers.

Booker is responsible for coordinating the process of providing artist services. Usually it has its own catalog of stars that work with it. Among them may be:

• Dance groups;
• actors of the spoken genre;
• professional leaders;
• singers;
• musical groups, working in different genres;
• DJs.

Capital booking agencies are ready to deliver not only domestic but also foreign stars to the event.

Who can become a buker

Becoming a music manager can only be a person who has many connections in the entertainment industry. He must be a public and recognizable person with a crystal clear reputation. Only in this case the stars of the first and second echelon will trust such an agent.

Not always a booking of stars is offered by individual managers. This service can be offered by:

• Promoter organizations;
• event-agencies;
• Concert companies.

However, it is worthwhile to cooperate only directly with booking agencies. It is important for customers to know that many companies whose scope of activity is the organization of entertainment events themselves resort to the services of bookings specialists.

How to become a good buker

Booker should know the basics of economics and jurisprudence. He must fully understand what a booking is. It's good to have your own base of artists and constantly improve. Specialists of one of the leading metropolitan agencies start their careers from scratch. They study the profession by the method of McDonald's, who claimed that any top manager should spend at least one day in the kitchen.

Before learning how to engage stars of the first magnitude, you need to carefully study all the stages of booking. It seems that in this profession it's enough to succeed, only having connections, but in fact the process of booking an artist's time is much more difficult. Domestic bookings differ in the need to delve into all the processes. In any other country, it is enough only to be able to sign contracts, and in Russia the expert must delve into all the subtleties of the process.

One of the most famous bikers of the country, Mikhail Yurkov, says that at the dawn of his career he had:

• Continuing to study;
• Regularly visit the capital's clubs and social events;
• meet the artists at the airport;
• organize their settling in hotels;
• To attend sound checks;
• To understand the connection of equipment in particular.

Only in this way can you succeed. In the early years, the work of a bouquet is extremely complex and requires full payback. To achieve success, professionals should not count their fees, but think about the joy that they give to people.

Differences between book and concert agencies

In the music industry there are two types of work: the invitation of artists to one-off events and the organization of tours. Many confuse concert agencies and booking. The first are engaged in organizing tours, that is, several performances at one or different venues. The latter are engaged in one-off activities:

• Festivals;
• parties;
• corporate evenings;
• weddings;
• Celebrations for various occasions (anniversary, anniversary and special holidays).

Otherwise, these two areas of music management are similar. Both agencies have catalogs of performers with whom they cooperate. It is also important that bukers have connections with major Russian and foreign agencies, where the first-magnitude stars are collected.

Unlike concert agencies, the field of work of the booking companies is the club show business of Russia. They mostly deal with party organizations, closed events and festivals taking place in the nightlife of the city.

Interaction with event-managers

For those who have a large amount of money and can afford to order a performance of a domestic or foreign artist for a celebration, it is important that it fits into the overall concept of the event. Event-managers are responsible for this. They create the scenario of the event and choose artists who have a corresponding repertoire, suitable for the solemn occasion.

Further organizers of events establish contact with booking agencies and identify those performers who are free on the relevant date. The client selection is completed. It is the final customer who determines what artist he wants to see on his holiday.

Features of the operation of booking agencies in Russia

Show business in Russia has its own characteristics and specifics. Club entertainment projects have appeared with us relatively recently. Booking also differs from the European one, first of all by the fact that this concept is much wider. In the West, the booking manager only needs to contact the agent of the artist and specify the main points of the contract. We similar specialists need to deal with all the logistics, from the issuance of visas for Western artists, ending with a transfer from the airport to the hotel. The room in the hotel will have to bookers too.

How to work with artists

If a common man does not know what a booking is, he will find the contacts of the artist and write an email or call his manager directly. Now no one works for such orders. Usually the application remains unanswered. Stars of the first echelon cooperate with about a dozen large booking agencies. Contact with a specialist is easy to find by subscription.

Work with artists is conducted in two directions. The first is when managers track musical trends and popularity ratings. They make contact with the stars and offer their performances to the partners of the company. Partners are usually several sites (nightclubs or similar entertainment facilities), which often book performances. After one of the partners approves the nominee of the artist and proposes a date that will fit into the celebrity tour schedule, the stage of an active PR company begins, aimed at the payback of the event. Promotion of domestic bookers are also often taken into their own hands.

The second direction - the client comes and makes an application for a particular artist or asks for a few options for an event to choose from. In this case, the work of the booking specialist is less creative. It is necessary to negotiate with celebrity agents and look for ways of mutually beneficial cooperation.

How does the crisis affect the work with artists?

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk that booking in Russia is unpromising. In fact, this is far from the case. In recent years, specialists in this sphere are experiencing difficulties only because of the increase in the fees of domestic celebrities.

A little more problems for the organizers of performances of foreign artists. They often refuse to speak in the country, referring to inconvenient dates or an improper platform. A more frequent type of refusal is a request for a fabulous fee. To recoup the performance of some Western artists in the last two years is very difficult, as people try to spend less on entertainment. Only the legendary stars of the world scene can attract attention of the public.

Nevertheless, the Moscow booking agencies found a way out and now they are actively inviting collaborating artists who have already won the love of the public. Also they do not lack a talented DJ.