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Hiring Musicians – Booking Guides

10 Top Tips for a Successful Performer Booking

Category: Articles, Hiring Musicians – Booking Guides Tags: sound, top 10

So, you’ve got your a performer booked for your event. You’ve made your payment so you don’t have to worry about cash on the day, you’ve confirmed when and how they’ll get there and depart, and they know exactly what style of music to perform. But what about the day itself?

10 Top Tips for a Successful Performer Booking

Here’s our guide to making sure you have a perfect working relationship with your performers.

1. Single point of contact:
If you’re likely to be busy on the day of the event, make sure that the performers have a single point of contact on the day who they can talk to if they have any problems.

2. Food and drink:
Particularly if they are performing for a long time, performers will expect to have access to drinking water nearby. If it is a large event, a nice touch is often to provide performers with some food or drink. Arrive performers are discouraged from accepting alcohol for the duration of their booking.

3. Toilet facilities:
This one is common sense. No one wants a gap in the music because they weren’t told where the toilets were beforehand…

4. Requests and sing-alongs:
Though some musicians will be happy to take requests on the day, most prefer to receive some notice so that they can plan the song or piece as part of their set. We would recommend that requests are made in advance if possible.

5. Venue equipment and facilities:
To allow the event to run smoothly, make sure the performer know if the details of the venue’s sound equipment beforehand (if it has any). For example, a piano or PA system. If your musicians are performing outside, ensure the area is sheltered from rain and sun.

6. Breaks:
Make sure you’ve discussed when your performers would like to take a break. Most performers will not want to play longer than an hour at a time without a 15 minutes break but they will be open to discussion.

7. Performance space:
Make sure the performers are aware of where they will be performing beforehand, particularly if it is outdoors or indoors.

8. Sound limits:
Make sure you check if your venue has a sound limit and relay this to the musicians beforehand.

9. Leave a review:
Reviews are essential for performers and help them secure bookings in future. Please help keep Arrive booking community trustworthy and transparent by reviewing you performers.

10. Tips:
These are not typically expected but may be accepted at the discretion of the performer

Arrive Guide to Booking a Performer

Category: Articles, Hiring Musicians – Booking Guides, Wedding Planning

Once you have submitted your inquiry, you’re ready to begin managing your booking. Here’s how it works:

Guide to Booking a Performer

1. Receive applications

  • Once you’ve submitted your inquiry, you’ll be taken to your inquiry page – this is your unique webpage from which you’ll be able to manage the booking from start to finish. 
  • You’ll then shortly begin receiving applications from available performers.
  • You can then compare your applicants by:
  • Listening to their recordings.
  • Viewing their profiles.
  • Creating a shortlist of your favourites.

2. Communicate with your performers

  • Though recordings and performers profiles do help when you’re deciding who to book, you’ll want to get in touch with your favourites before making your final decision.
  • On your Enquiry page, you can send messages or request phone calls with performers.
  • Sometimes after negotiating with a performer, their original quote might need to be changed.

3. Book your favourite

  • Once you know which artist(s) you’d like to book, click the green “Book now” button on their application card and complete the form which pops up by entering your payment details. This will send a message to the artist asking them to confirm that they are able to commit to this booking. Learn more about sending a Booking request here. 
  • Please note: no booking is secured until you have sent a Booking request.
  • If you would like to book more than one artist, simply click the “Book now” button on your chosen a performer’s application cards.

4. The performer makes the next move…

  • The performer will then be prompted to accept or decline your booking request.
  • Once the performer has accepted your booking request, your payment will be taken and held securely by our industry-standard payment provider, PayPal. This payment will then be released to the performer three working days after your event. 
  • If you book more than a month in advance of your event, we take 35% of your total fee as a deposit and transfer the remaining 65% closer to the time of the event.
  • If you book less than a month in advance of your event, we take your full fee upfront.
  • At this point, the contact details of you and your booked performers will be automatically exchanged, so you can keep in close contact right up until the gig.
  • You’ll also automatically receive an invoice. 

5. Enjoy the performance!

  • Make sure you stay in close contact with your booked performer right up until the event. You can find our guidelines on how to manage performers at your event here.
  • Sit back and relax – all payment will be transferred automatically by Arrive after the gig so you don’t need to worry about cash in hand or writing cheques.

6. Review your performer(s)

  • You’ll receive an email prompting you to review the performers you booked. 
  • Please review them at your earliest convenience by leaving star ratings and a short note describing your experience of their performance.
  • Note: reviews are very important to our performers and help ensure that the Arrive platform remains a trusted and transparent service for booking performers.

That’s it – if you follow these six simple steps you should have no problem at all booking performers through Arrive!

To book again, simply head back to Arrive.Live We hope to see you again soon!