Can a boutique booking agency flourish in todays era of consolidation?
The bigger the major agencies get the more opportunity there is for a boutique agency. We hear all of the time from presenters who are not well serviced by the major agencies. They are happy to deal with us. While we don’t have a large roster, part of this business is (building) relationships. Certainly in the arts and festival communities, you have to pick up a phone and talk to them. They will book your acts because you deal straight with them. Are there problems in balancing the expectations of your roster against marketplace reality? It is sometimes a struggle. In August, for example, I called each of our clients and told them that if they wanted to work, we needed to restructure their deals and that we needed to lower guarantees. I told them, “Your fee is X, we need to lower it.” “How about the places we are doing well?” “We still need to do it. We need to do it pretty well across the board.” Make the show go on but lower guarantees. We can make it up on the back end. Instead of 7
