School's in session, and here are some insights into playing the college market as you begin the fall touring season. Many acts successfully use colleges as a point from which to launch their careers, while others have found it leading to a dead end. As we explore both ends of the spectrum, keep an open mind about how this market might fit into your booking plans.
Five hot tips for playing the college market
1. Use a college date as an anchor date for a tour.
There are benefits to playing the college market, and money is just one of them. I've known artists who played the college circuit for years and made very good money. They were often getting three or four times what they were making working the club circuit. Use these dates as anchor dates and surround them with a tour of other lesser paying (though often more prestigious) club gigs. Often college dates may be booked during weekday nights and sometimes even during the daytime. This leaves the weekends for the clubs. A good paying college gig can often help fund other portions of a tour.
2. Do your own promotion.
When planning a college date, it is necessary to do your own promotion along with any done by the college. Get in touch with college radio and newspapers. Send notice to anyone on your mailing list in that area. Contact local media sources. Use the college’s PR person (if any) to coordinate your media surrounding the gig.
3. Use college radio.
Unless the campus station is a commercial station (and there are only a few campuses that have commercial stations), it is very likely that you can get airplay and a live interview on one of their shows. There are some incredibly influential college stations around, so don't miss your opportunity to tap into the benefits they may provide. If you are going to tour colleges, you might consider subscribing to the College Music Journal (CMJ) to keep abreast of what's current on the college stations.
4. Contact media in the college town.
While promoting your date on campus, don't forget about the in-town media. Another benefit of playing college gigs is that most of them are open to the public. If you do some in-town promotions and get some non-college audience, that's great for future gigs in the area.
5. Make sure your dates are reported.
Playing the college circuit gains you a reputation within the college circuit. There are reporting mechanisms from organizations like the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA – more about NACA follows) that help campus programmers review artist's previous tours. So, if one campus reports that you did a great gig, it is likely that other campuses will be influenced by the report and also book you.
College gigging 101
Colleges and Universities offer a variety of performing opportunities. Many campuses have multiple facilities available for use as performance spaces. Facilities may range from a performing arts center fully equipped with a soft seat theater that includes dressing rooms, curtains, proscenium stage, lighting, and sound to a transformable gym, cafeteria, or lounge.
The various facilities are often booked or programmed by different departments. A director who schedules theater productions, including symphonies, jazz acts, dance, and popular international artists usually books the performing arts center. The director of the center generally coordinates outside performances with classes and college productions making the facility rarely available to other college departments.
The other major booking entity on a campus is the Student Activities Center. Supervised by a faculty or staff member, student committees do the majority of programming, depending on the individual college. The most popular student committees are often the concert and coffeehouse committees. Here, students decide how they will spend the huge budgets available from student fees collected each year dedicated to campus activity planning. Programming may also be scheduled through other individual departments on campus that generally have very small budgets. Fraternities and Sororities offer further performing opportunities.
Associations, organizations, and conferences
Those programming for the Student Activities Center have a number of conference opportunities from which their various committees may select acts. The oldest and largest organization is the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA). NACA hosts a national conference in February each year along with eleven regional conferences.
The other organization now running a booking conference for college activities is the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA). APCA, the much smaller of the two, offers new acts an opportunity to break into the college market without the requirement of spending big bucks for the chance to do so. Although NACA is often in the forefront of showcasing new talent to colleges, it is more challenging for individual artists to break into the organization and reap the benefits in their first year after showcasing or exhibiting.
If you feel that your act belongs in the performing arts center environment, then begin your booking efforts by contacting the director of the facility. The other method of capturing the attention of many performing arts centers directors is to attend a booking conference. The Association of Performing Arts Presenters holds a major annual booking conference in New York City each January.
During the fall, there are a series of smaller regional conferences that help an artist to concentrate their touring in a targeted area. These conferences include The Performing Arts Exchange sponsored by the Southern Arts Federation; the Mid-America Arts Conference sponsored by Arts Midwest and the Mid-America Arts Alliance; and the WAA sponsored by the Western Arts Alliance.
Although attendees to these conferences also include performing arts center programmers not associated with a college campus, many performing arts center programmers attend at least one of the regional conferences and often attend the national conference in New York as well. Your chances of gaining the attention of some of these programmers are increased should you decide to attend and possibly showcase. These are expensive conferences to attend and organizations to join, so please be certain that your act is appropriate for this type of college venue.
Many college bookers rely on these conferences and organizations for the bulk of their talent buying. It is not impossible to break into the college market on a campus by campus basis, but there is a greater chance for recognition if you use these conferences as your entrée.
The down side to playing the college market
One of the most challenging issues that agents and self-booking artists must deal with when booking colleges is the student turnover rate. On those campuses where the student committees are in charge of booking the talent, an agent or artist often finds the task frustrating and sometime totally disheartening to the point of giving up.
You are dealing with rotating committee chairs, graduating students, students who join a committee for one or two semesters, students with varying office hours or no office hours forcing you to track them down in their dorm rooms. One attempt at a solution is to always get the name and number of the faculty or staff supervisor advising the student committee. They are usually the one with the authority to sign the contracts and they usually have office hours. When you begin to run into trouble finalizing a date, contact the faculty supervisor and ask their help in facilitating the booking.
Since these committees are part of the student's education, you are often required to play the role of teacher and walk them through the booking process, one painstaking step at a time. This holds true for each step after a contract is signed. If you want your date promoted on campus, make sure you follow up with every aspect right up until the gear is packed and loaded in the vehicle after you've played the date.
Most campus activity gigs are paid for with the collected funds from student fees. There are a few facilities that are run like a professional club, meaning they need to make money in order to survive. Most campus activities, however, do not need to make money. The committees are allocated a budget and if they want to get the same amount or more money the next year, they must spend the money allocated in the current year. This leaves the committees in the enviable position of spending money without having to be fiscally responsible. They are not always concerned whether the money was well spent or whether any of the students whose money is funding the event ever show up and take advantage of these activities. This of course impacts you, the act being booked.
I have heard from so many acts playing the college circuit that the money is great but the audiences are small and often non-existent. As a professional performer, you are attempting to treat your career professionally. Playing the college market may stress you in that department since those with whom you are dealing are not professionals. To be fair, though, every once in a while you will happily find a student who takes his/her committee-work very seriously.
There have been many major recording artists who began building their careers in the college market. I can recall seeing a brand new act, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, at one college concert on my campus. The programming committee took a chance on booking him and as I recall it was a great show with a really large crowd for the small student union all-purpose room. Gee, I wonder whatever happened to that act?
Jeri Goldstein is the author of How To Be Your Own Booking Agent The Musician's & Performing Artist's Guide To Successful Touring 2nd Edition UPDATED. An agent and artist's manager for 20 years, Jeri currently consults with artists, agents, and managers through her Manager-In-A-Box consultation program and presents The Performing Biz, online tele-seminars, and live workshops at conferences, and universities, for individuals, arts councils, and organizations. Email Jeri at jg@performingbiz.com.
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The schedule includes:
October 7: Tour Goals & Planning Strategies
October 14: Routing Your Tours
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October 28: Working with Presenters, Bookers, Promoters
November 11: Targeting Your Markets for Maximum Audiences
School's in session, and here are some insights into playing the college market as you begin the fall touring season. Many acts successfully use colleges as a point from which to launch their careers, while others have found it leading to a dead end. As we explore both ends of the spectrum, keep an open mind about how this market might fit into your booking plans.
