A lot of attention goes into planning an event especially when there will be an artist performance. You must ensure they have everything they need for the best performance such as great technical setup, hotel booking, feeding, etc.

Without a central location to track all these things, you can forget important information and end up having to run through hoops to ensure the event goes smoothly and sometimes, even when you try everything to fix the thing mistake, it still doesn’t work. Having an artist booking form ensures you have all the relevant information about the artist’s performance at the event.

So, let’s look at everything you need to create an effective artist booking form, including a free template to get you started.

What is an Artist Booking Form?

Your clients and performers being treated well at events and being satisfied with your services is not a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have and your artist booking form is one of the best ways to achieve this. An artist booking form is the communication channel between you, the event organizer, and the artist performing at the event. It helps you collect all the information you need to effectively plan the event and satisfy your client.

Your artist booking form can also serve as an agreement between you and the artist on the event stating the accommodations you will make for their performance. 

Who Needs an Artist Booking Form?

Here are some major use cases for artist booking forms:

• Event organizers

  Using the artist booking form helps you plan events and organize performances from small local gatherings to large-scale festivals.

• Artist managers

  Having an artist booking form also helps you easily go through performance and collaboration invitations to select the best for your artist for your artist based on their business affairs and career development.

• Artists

  Musicians, performers, and other creative professionals who are directly involved in the booking process for their shows and appearances.

• Venue owners and managers

  Artist booking forms can also help you schedule and maximize your performance spaces, clubs, theaters, or locations. This way there’s no double-booking and your event center doesn’t miss performance opportunities that would generate revenue.

• Booking agents

  You can also use your artist booking form to secure performances for artists and help you negotiate profitable contracts for your artists.

• Independent promoters

  Just like booking agents and artist managers, you also need an artist booking form as an independent promoter to organize and promote concerts and other live events.

• Festival coordinators

  The artist booking form helps you manage and coordinate multi-artists, which helps you effectively plan and handle complicated schedules and logistics. This makes sure the festival runs smoothly and attendees are satisfied.

• Entertainment industry professionals

  The artist booking form will also come in handy for you if you work in the business side of live performances and artist bookings. It ensures artists you work with are booked for the right shows and make a great profit from it.

• Small to medium-sized entertainment businesses

  As a growing entertainment business an artist booking form is a simple, efficient, and cost-effective tool to help you streamline your booking operations. This way you can keep track of events your artists are performing while working with their schedules. It also helps you build your credibility as it helps you prevent booking mix-ups.

Benefits of an Artist Booking Form

The following are the major benefits of using an artist booking form:

For Event Organizers:

• Efficiency: the artist booking form helps you collect all the necessary information in one place. This saves you the time you would have spent in back-and-forth trying to agree on details with the artist. 
• Clear Communication: The artist booking form also helps you ensure everyone is on the same page from the start, reducing the risk of misunderstandings later. You have a written agreement, so none of the parties feel cheated, and if anyone goes against the contract, you can easily refer back to the document.
• Informed Decisions: The booking form also provides a clear picture of the artist’s availability, fees, and requirements. This helps you decide if you can work with specific artists for specific events e.g. if any artist fees is above your budget, you can easily look for alternatives without having to go through back-and-forth emails to agree on the terms.
• Improved Organization: Keeps track of all artist inquiries and bookings in a centralized location for easy reference.

For Artists:

• Increased Visibility: Your artist booking form can be the call to action you need to perform at the right event. For example, posting an engaging reel of your performance with your artist booking form link helps event organizers book you; it creates the mental note they need to reach out to you to perform at their events. You could simply add it to the link in bio or your website.
• Professional Presentation: The booking form also helps you appear more professional by helping to collect the information you need about events in an organized manner. It also sends the message to people booking you that you have a schedule and they are customers contracting your service.
• Standardization and Time Management: Using the artist booking form helps you all the details you need about the event at once. It also helps you avoid reiterating the same things over and over again e.g. questions about availability and fees.

Why Artists Booking Forms?

Let’s look at some scenarios where you would need an artist booking form:

• Booking Agencies: When managing multiple artists, you need an artist booking form to help create a roaster of your artist’s performance and events. This will help you streamline inquiries about artist availability and promote artists to the right audience to book more performances and generate revenue.
• International Artists: if you are an out-of-country artist or an agency book events for your artist out of the country.  Your artist booking form helps you to communicate about travel arrangements, visas, and fees. The form helps you ensure all parties know what’s expected of them.
• Corporate Events: As a corporate event planner you have to deal with strict budgets and approval processes. So having an artist booking form you set expectations for artists about fees, what to perform, number of guests, guest preference, etc.
• Technical Requirements: You also need artist booking forms to know the specific technical needs for the event, e.g. sound, lighting, staging, etc.

Key Components of an Artist Booking Form

• Artist Information: the artist’s name, contact details, genre or style, and technical rider. This helps plan for the event and set accurate expectations for the event.
• Event Details: name, date, time, location, and type of event. You can also add a guest list or event center capacity.
• Technical Requirements: aside from the technical rider containing the lighting, sound, and staging information, you should also add a section that allows artists to specify other technical needs such as backline equipment rentals, stage setup requirements, power supply details, etc.
• Hospitality & Accommodation: this covers feeding, transportation, and accommodation details. For example, artists could have dietary restrictions, which would help you provide them with appropriate meals.
• Financial Arrangement: Other costs aside from performance fees, travel, and accommodation, may come up and instead of deciding last minute on these fees, you can simply include them in your booking form. For example, merchandise sales rights, per diem for meals, or overtime pay if the event extends beyond the stipulated time.
• Contract and Legal Information: While the form itself may not be legally binding, it can include a section stating that you will add a formal contract outlining the terms and conditions of the booking.
• Links to Promotional Materials: You can also link the artist’s merchandise and other promotional materials such as their website, social media profiles, or performance videos. This helps to boost their target audience awareness.
• Special Requests (Optional): This helps you or the artist mention any special requests or additional information.

How to Use an Artist Booking Form

The way you would use your artist booking as a corporate event planner may be slightly different from an artist manager or even a self-managed artist. However, here are some generally applicable tips for using your artist booking form:

• Create a checklist to ensure you include everything you need on the form
• Specify the event details including the event purpose, target audience, expected attendance, and artist expectations to ensure there are no last-minute disputes or scrabblings
• List all the equipment you need including gadgets, stage size, audio/visual capabilities, etc.
• Record and plan all logistical information to cover load-in times, parking details, transportation, accommodation, etc.
• Also specify payment terms such as the budget, payment schedule, and method.
• Ensure you provide your contact details so that other parties can easily reach you and ask questions.

Example Template for an Artist Booking Form

This template allows you to collect all the information you need about the event and the artist. You can also customize the template to fit your booking needs. For example, you can add new sections or edit the existing questions to include payment methods, signatures, etc. You can also add

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Incomplete Forms: make sure the respondent provides all the information you need in the form. You can make these questions required, so they can’t submit the form without providing you with the information you need.
• Unclear Information: The goal of the form is to collect all the information you need. Avoid using technical terms, and proofread to ensure everyone who reads the form understands you and takes the booking process seriously.
• Missing Key Details: Don’t forget to add all the important questions in your form like fees, availability, or technical requirements.
• Ignoring Tech Needs: Overlooking technical riders can lead to last-minute problems during the event.
• Outdated Information: update the form to include any change to the event or performance requirement such as dates, fees, etc.

Conclusion

A comprehensive artist booking form provides a successful booking process for both the artist and the event organizer. It helps you avoid the unnecessary stress that comes with missing details when booking artists for events. 

We hope this guide makes your artist booking process easier and here’s a customizable template to get you started (feel free to tailor it to your booking process).