How to Book a Venue for Your Live Music Event

From a former live music event booking manager, key components to secure before selecting a concert venue. The list is long, but it's complete. I recommend anyone new to booking a venue (or those who need a refresher course) keep this article in hand and follow the entire list from top to bottom while calling various venue options.

Overview

Before you can book a live music event, you must know the major details about the show, as well as the band or musician's expectations and requirements well ahead of time. This is crucial information so that not only you can secure the right venue but also so that the venue can select you. Various performance spaces have their own set of guidelines and musical preferences and you will need to sort of "pitch" your event to the proper event coordinator or concert booking manager before you assume certain locations as potential event options.

It is a joint decision. Don't get me wrong, if the music type is agreeable to the event specialist, it often takes only a deposit or signed contract to secure the space. Just remember, you should be choosey about the location as well. Shop around. The success of a live music event relies very heavily on where it happens.

Here, a list of necessary details you should plan to discuss with each prospective booking manager at your various event location alternatives, in no particular order:

*Date*

It's usually good to have a few dates in mind that might work for your live music event. If the venues you are interested in have any of them available, see if you can place a couple on hold. Most performance spots do this for free with the idea that if someone else requests it, they call to let you confirm or cancel. Usually in these cases, the guy who can put money down first wins.

*Capacity*

How many people can this venue hold for a show like yours and how many live music concert goers do you expect?

*Tickets*

Find out how to go about selling your tickets. Ticketmaster? Does the venue help with sales transactions and/or promoting the concert event or is it all up to you? Do you get all the money from ticket sales or does the venue want a percentage?

*Age Limit and Dress Code*