I give you a shoot to perform in front of some of the most important people in the music industry. Here you have the people who can change your career. Ok, you don’t really know it, since you are not that informed who is who in the business. The fact is that you have nagged me for a couple of months to be part of this happening. Now it so happens two slots just got free and out of just a nice gesture gave the opportunity to you. What do you do?

Take the opportunity and just work hard on it. Or start nagging that you should get paid since it’s in a town an hour away.

The best part is that already when you were nagging I told you that this is just a gig in front of important people. To be honest, if I paid the artist, I wouldn’t give this opportunity to you I would put an artist that sold more tickets. I just give you an opportunity, to get a career I’m not investing anything in you.

The interesting part is that other slot I offered to an artist from the other side of the world. That artist was really happy to get the slot and just jumped on it, booked a ticket, and will have over a 12-hour journey to get here, just to be able to perform in front of these opportunities. They understood the mission.

This happens to me all the time, the funny part is that it’s never the artist making this mistake. Almost always the manager or the booking agency. I can also tell you that the artist who has made this mistake has never gotten anywhere. The managers and the booking agency also rarely manage to get something out there. Instead, they pick up things on their way down and brag about a career that is not hot any longer. They do to big mistakes but they don’t understand it.

You have to take chances if you going to go somewhere. Sorry to say but a normal gig rarely has any bigger chances. There you get a normal audience and fans. The people who that are the gatekeepers to these concerts that really can make a difference usually never go to them. If they do, they probably are more there for entertainment not to seek out opportunities.

This is a good way to just pick out the good artist. If the artist doesn’t get it at this level, they would never understand it when you really get into the big decisions and the big level. The sad part is that the mistake can be made by someone that you trust. Someone who should propel your career forward. Motley Crue once said they didn’t have a manager, they had a damager. And that is so true. The professional managers know all this. It’s mainly done by the small ones who think they know stuff, but they don’t. Most of the time national manger have never been outside their own country. They think they are big but in reality, know very little about how the industry really works and what is an opportunity and what is not.