From Catering to Booking Live Music Events

I started out in special events as a typical catering director working for some pretty large companies, Wolfgang Puck, Patina and the Hollywood Bowl for a couple of years to name a few. I was doing normal catering duties like developing menus, decor, floral design, staffing and of course entertainment. That's when I started to book bands. I was auditioning the bands, sampling the music, helping with their setup and normal things that would entail putting on an event. Then I helped launch the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, That's when it all changed.  The Knitting Factory is originally based in New York. Then they opened the Hollywood venue in California and have since launched Knit Media. I started dealing with the bands on a much larger scale learning exactly what booking a band was all about and how much goes into a band going from the garage to the Greek Theater and everything in-between. 

Live Music Concerts Online

At the Knitting Factory I worked with big bands, little bands, pay-to-play and all sorts.  I don't care so much for pay-to-play by the way. Pay-to-play is a simple concept in that you have to guarantee a certain amount of people to show up to your gig. Let's say to play the stage at the Knitting Factory you had to guarantee fifty tickets sold, so if you fall short of those fifty tickets you actually have to pay the difference whether it's five dollars a ticket or fifty dollars a ticket. The bigger your band following the better it will work out. Anything over your minimum in ticket sales is your profit. That's the point, if you sell fifty-one tickets and you had a fifty ticket guarantee, you've only made one ticket sale even-though you've brought fifty-one people in. Once you get passed that point you start working with venues like The Troubadour, The Whiskey, The Roxy, and thus also have done pay-to-play as well. Download Free MusicPunk App from Google play store.

Free MusicPunk Apps

I went on to work for The Music Box also known as The Fonda in Hollywood. It is one of the most premier venues in California for its size. The theater holds about 1300 people. You are going from basically playing for your friends in your garage in venues that hold about fifty people like the club Loaded on Hollywood Blvd. Or Hotel Cafe down the street from there and those other  “hidden gem” places that you really want to play, but not too many people know about them for playing legendary places like The Troubadour, The Roxy, The Whiskey, the Viper room, places that hold 200 to 500 people. These places are well known for the legends who have played there, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Nine Inch Nails to name a few.  I've booked bands and promoted them for over a decade the hard way.  When I discovered musicpunk.com and the MusicPunk app it became apparent that bookers like myself were going to have an easier time helping bands self-promote themselves by uploading their own gigs in any city and gaining access to tens of thousands of new music lovers looking for live music. This is a big change in the live music industry. It truly benefits the fans, the bands and the venues in a big way.

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