What Clients Don't Understand About Band & DJ Costs

Clients always want to know 'how much will X band cost for our event?'. What they don't understand is that there isn't a simple answer to that question. Here's why.

THAT question simply results in a load more questions that need answering BEFORE a cost is arrived at. 

We do a lot of Act Booking here in Cuckoo Events and we've all been involved in booking bands and DJs since long before Cuckoo came to be. We're used to how the industry works by now.

There's a whole lot more to it than a client usually understands. To be fair, it's not what they do all day every day so why WOULD they understand it? They don't need to. That's why they come to Event Management companies like us or to other booking agents. 

What IS important, however, is that they understand that getting a price for their particular event is a much more involved process than they know. 

So let's take the simple example of a local Irish festival committee looking to book a big Irish act for their festival in the summer. 

Here are some of the factors that will impact on the price we get you for your event:

• What date is your event?
• What day of the week is your event?
• How many tickets will you be selling to the event?
• What price will the tickets be?
• Who else is playing at your event?
• Who have you got working on your event?
• Is the band planning to tour at that time?
• What other offers has the band received for similar festivals?
• Has the band been booked for another similar gig close to where yours is on?
• How many small Irish festival gigs has the band's management planned for them to do this year?
• What reputation has your festival among bands?
• Who is involved in running your event?
• Who is the booking agent?
• What fee can you offer?
• What can you offer beyond the fee? 
• What level of production / PA / staging etc. are you going to have at your event?
• What relationship has the Event Management company / booking agent got with the band's management?
• Is your event sponsored?
• Is the band involved with one of the big promoters? (MCD, Pod, Aiken)
• Does the band have an exclusive booking agent?

There are just 20 questions. 

It took me 20 seconds to come up with them. 

They are questions that matter and ones that come up time and time again. 

There are plenty more and there are more I've not even heard yet. 

Clients need to understand that 'the festival down the road' my well have paid the band €3,000 to play their festival. That does NOT mean YOUR festival will get that same band for €3,000. 

That's just how the industry works.

We're not saying we agree with it. In fact there are some factors that come into play that we really don't think should matter but we don't make the rules. 

Like we say on our Act Booking page we know the questions that matter and will get you to a cost quicker than if you tried to do it yourself, 9 times out of 10.