How To Get More Jazz Gigs (Expanded Edition)

A step-by-step method to book more gigs for your project (registration closes November 3rd 2024)

NOT GETTING THE GIGS YOUR MUSIC DESERVES?


It's been a disastrous few years in lots of ways, not least for gigging jazz musicians.

But whilst things may not be back to their pre-pandemic norm, it's time to lay the foundations for future success with your project.

My offer with the recently updated & expanded 2024 edition of the How To Get More Jazz Gigs course is to help you get everything in place so your project is gig ready and prepared for booking success in 2025 and beyond.

''This course is brilliant. Booking gigs can seem quite daunting, but Matt's methods break it down into a really straightforward system, meaning you can approach the right promoters with confidence. I've definitely booked more gigs as a result of taking this course.''

- Joe Williamson, guitarist with Animal Society (UK)

Booking a gig doesn't happen on 'day one'...

It starts by connecting with and motivating organisers many months before the club programmes is announced or the festival starts.

That takes planning, preparation and a decent strategy, especially if you don't want to waste too much time working on this...

The How To Get More Jazz Gigs course was first launched in 2017 and has since helped more than 300 jazz musicians around the world improve their bookings.

Last year, for the first time, it had a complete 'post-covid' upgrade.

All-new recordings, up-to-date resources and examples, expanded lessons and additional topics.

So if you're looking to turbo-charge the way you approach tour booking for 2025 and beyond, the strategies included will help you get everything in place so your project is 'gig-ready'.

You get the same promise of lifetime access (including future upgrades), a 30-day money-back guarantee and 1-to-1 support & feedback from an international booking agent.

"I highly recommend Matt Fripp's excellent online course on booking more gigs. Better than expected, excellent bang for the buck."

- Chuck Wansley, American vocalist

Why is *that* musician getting more gigs than you?!


Think back to your past attempts to book gigs....

If you know you were making great music, but not getting booked at the clubs & festivals you wanted to play at, something needs to change this time around.

Maybe some of these common issues sound familiar...

  • You're not sure which promoters you should be trying to reach?
  • How can you break into a new country or territory?
  • Do you know the most effective way to pitch your project?
  • Does the whole booking process seem too time-consuming?
  • How can you get gigs consistently?
  • Don't know how to raise your profile so promoters take it seriously?
  • Should you be asking for bigger fees?
  • How can you make promoters consider you without an agent?
  • Can you gain the confidence to 'sell' your project well enough?

Whatever the reason, getting too many rejections (or worse, ignored!) by jazz promoters can be pretty frustrating.

You've spent years of practice to get to the stage you're at now, but it often takes more than a killer project to get those within the industry motivated to book you.

It's normal that your 'booking skills' are not on the same level as your musical ones, but simply releasing more music and trying the same things to get gigs is unlikely to have massively different results, on its own...

"After working with Matt I now realise there is someone out there listening to "us" (jazz musicians) and he's created course material that's relevant to what jazz musicians need to grow their careers in a real and applicable way.

I'm really grateful to have come across Matt's program because over the past year my gigs and visibility have increased significantly in my home town of Chicago (at least 3-4 gigs a month!), and I know that the knowledge I've gained from him will help me to develop an even larger platform for my music in years to come."

- Michele Thomas, Jazz singer & educator, Chicago (USA), 2018 edition

A new strategy for 2025?


If you want to make progress with your career in 2025 and beyond, you can learn some simple, proven methods for figuring all this out.

Make your booking time more effective, get promoters to take notice of your new music and build a solid plan for how to get the gigs you should be doing.

Wherever you're at right now in your career, How To Get More Jazz Gigs is a step-by-step video course designed to help you do this.

I've broken down the booking process into simple, manageable steps, which you can easily apply to your own project and booking efforts.

The result: a more organised & effective strategy to get gigs for your project.

And, as well as getting lifetime access to the online content, you'll get feedback & support from an international jazz booking agent included.

Why I put this course together...


HI, I'M MATT FRIPP

I worked as a booking agent & manager for jazz musicians for around 14 years and confirmed more than 2,000 international jazz gigs.

But I started out as a jazz musician, just like you.

In fact, for the first few months working as a booking agent, back in 2010, I still considered myself primarily a musician.

The idea of trying to 'sell' something to club & festival promoters was a little daunting. They certainly didn't know who I was when I was contacting them, so even getting replies was not easy.

And yet, within 12 months, I was confirming more 100+ international jazz gigs a year.

There were 3 simple things that helped me to do that:

1. Learning how to find out which promoters would likely be interested in each of my projects.

2. Figuring our how to contact them and what to say or write.

3. Getting feedback & advice from more experienced agents and managers.

I put this course together to give you access to all 3 of these things.

The first two via the video lessons & resources and the third by providing you with feedback and being available to answer all your questions - directly and personally - as you go through the sections.

And now, as we get ready for the 10th edition, we have feedback from more than 300 jazz musicians around the world who've put these strategies into practice over the last 7 years and booked gigs!

IS YOUR PROJECT EVEN BEING CONSIDERED?

As an agent, I get contacted by at least 5 great jazz musicians looking for representation each week. Clubs and festival promoters receive many more!

The frustrating thing is that so many of these musicians aren't doing it as effectively as they could be...

  • They're contacting agencies & promoters who don't work with their sort of music
  • They copy/paste messages or send mass newsletters
  • They pitch via long, rambling emails
  • They use unclear descriptions of what they’re doing
  • They're contacting the wrong person (info@...)
  • They're uncertain of what they are actually looking for
  • They have Ineffective promo materials that don’t quickly & simply describe the music…
  • They're pitching too early or late for the programming team

If these pitches are ending up in the inbox of a festival promoter who's getting 50+ new proposals a DAY, I'm pretty sure a lot are getting deleted before even being heard...

"The course has injected an incredible energy and momentum into my day to day and I'm already seeing the results."

- Dario Napoli, jazz guitarist (Italy)

I know: you're a musician, not a booking agent!

You spent years learning how to play, not manage your career...

You need time to focus on writing music & practicing your instrument...

But you also know that there are many more great bands in the world than booking agents.

So if you want to get more gigs for your project right now (instead of waiting around for someone to do it for you), the surest way is to learn how to book gigs for yourself as effectively as possible.

[And, as frustrating as it might seem, you massively increase your chances of finding an agent if you are out there gigging and proving that there's a demand for your project]

Basically, as long as you're taking care of making great music, this course will help you to figure out which festivals and venues you should be playing at and how you can start making better progress with booking gigs.

Quick look inside the course

Here's a look at the lessons you'll find inside from Monday 4th November 2024


"My biggest goal is going to be getting over to Europe to do some touring, which I have never done before. Thanks to your Jazzfuel course, I’m finally organized enough to feel like I could actually do it"

- Brenda Earle Stokes, US-based Canadian pianist & vocalist

FACT: BOOKING GIGS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE COMPLICATED OR TIME CONSUMING

It’s certainly not something only available to agents with huge databases and personal connections.

You just need to use the right strategies to figure out which promoters around the world will be open to your project and then learn the best ways to reach them and get them interested.

This course will take you through each of these steps, in detail, so you have a clear plan for how to get better results in the coming months and years.

In fact, I did a survey a while back with around 50 international jazz promoters and one statistic in particular was pretty interesting:

 

Almost 60% of festivals & venue bookings were made directly with the band!

Source: Jazzfuel International promoter survey

So there's some proof that there are independent musicians out there, playing on a similar level to you, who are booking gigs and tours for themselves.

If you want to do the same, this course is a quick way to figure out how to do it.

"In an industry that can sometimes feel held together by a few influential gate keepers, Matt Fripp helps to break down the barriers and offers an opportunity to help up and coming musicians and bands navigate their path through the daunting task of promoting their music and playing at more gigs and festivals.

My band have already had new festival and gig offers come through, off the back of taking this course. It's such a rare and refreshing resource and I can’t recommend this enough!"

- Aaron Wheeler, Lydian Collective

HERE'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU'LL GET...


20+ video lessons where I’ll talk you through the specific ideas and methods, step-by-step

Screencasts from my computer so you can see exactly how I use these resources to book gigs

Keynote slides to share the ideas that I’ve used at conferences and workshops around Europe over the last 6 years

Personal feedback via the comments sections. You ask any questions or share examples with me there and I’ll give tips and solutions.

Downloadable templates & guides which will help you:

  • Pitch to promoters via email more effectively (you'll see examples of pitches I've sent and get templates to write your own)
  • Build a list of the best venues & festivals for your project (I'll explain how and give you a template to get started)
  • Put together a killer 1-sheet
  • Keep track of your personal network (I’ll explain why this is super important!)
  • Focus on the key festivals (with website links)


All this, to help you get a clear and effective plan for booking more gigs for your project in 2025 and beyond. You'll learn about:

Figuring out the 'right' promoters for your project
Hunting down their contact details!
How to contact promoters to grab attention & get replies
Who the other people are that can help you develop your career
How to present your project most effectively
The different types of gigs out there
How to create more 'news' to grab attention from festival promoters

The lessons (some of which have already been presented at international conferences & masterclasses around Europe) are broken down into short sections so you can spread out the content over days, weeks or months - as you want.

The most informative and useful course I’ve ever seen for reaching promoters and bookers... and I’ve seen a few!

It’s a well thought out plan of action that is easy to understand and follow, while giving artists a birds eye view of how promoters think.

- Vivian Sessoms, American singer

DECISION TIME: Ready to book more gigs for 2025 and beyond?

If you want something different for your project in the coming months and years, you probably need to do something different.

If your booking efforts so far haven’t been giving you the results you want, putting more time into the same methods won’t necessarily make a difference.

You don't need to spend more and more hours on this, but you do need to change the way you’re approaching it to see completely new results.

The 2024/25 edition is open now and joining gets you lifetime access to the course content, including updates, from the minute you enrol!

See you on the inside?

I found the course extremely useful. Being web based has made it very convenient to pick up whenever there is a ‘quiet’ moment.

- Lesley Wells, Manager for Moreira Chonguica & The Moreira Project (South Africa)

 

Since launching in autumn of 2017, more than 300 musicians from around the world have been working through the course lessons and getting feedback in the private the course forum.

WHAT DO SOME OF THE PAST STUDENTS THINK..?

(via an anonymous survey for past participants...)

The average rating for the feedback given during the course was 95%

92% said the level of detail in the lessons was GREAT

100% said they would recommend the course to other jazz musicians they knew

80%: Average score for the question "do you feel more confident about booking gigs in the next 6-9 months?"

IMPORTANT: Booking gigs comes down to making great music and promoting it, consistently, in the right ways.

The methods described in this course have been successfully used on a wide range of jazz artists over the last 12+ years and are things I continue to do today in my agency & management work.

I'm confident that following the suggestions in this course will help you to make progress in your career, which is why I offer a 30-day money back guarantee for anyone who decides it's not for them.

But, of course, I can make no guarantee that you will see results, just from passing through the lessons and trying the strategies.

Music is very much down to personal taste so it's ultimately your responsibility to firstly be making music that excites and interests the right promoters and then putting in consistent effort on the 'business' side to really find success.

Booking gigs is not quick or easy, but you can do it with the right effort and the right plan!

Course Curriculum



"People are always asking me how I book so many good gigs and the first thing I tell them is to check out Matt Fripp's Jazzfuel course!"

- Andrew Neil Hayes, Run Logan Run (UK)

Frequently Asked Questions


How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
Will promoters really book musicians directly?
I can't speak for every promoter out there, but everything I've seen, heard & experienced points to YES. Just look around at festival and club programmes and you'll see for yourself. And don't forget the statistic from the 2017 Jazzfuel promoter survey (which included some of the biggest festivals in the world): On average, 57% of artists on a programme are booked directly, without an agent or manager.
How much time will I need to do this course?
Most of the video lessons are less than 5 minutes long and can be watched on your mobile phone (even whilst you're on the move). The key - like with practicing music - is regular work on the ideas and tasks that they describe, with a few more in-depth sessions from time to time. Depending on how quickly you want to progress, 1 hour per week should be enough to see some good results.
When does the course start and finish?
This course is available from November 4th 2024 and, after that, you'll have lifetime access to the lessons. It's a completely self-paced online course, so you can decide when you start and when you finish.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
I designed this course because I honestly think I can help you book more gigs! If you're not happy with it for any reason, contact me anytime within the first 30 days and I'll give you a full refund.
Shouldn't I just spend my time trying to get an agent?
You could... But everything in my personal experience - and from talking to musicians who book their own gigs - suggests that putting these strategies into action yourself is the surest way to see results. And, don't forget: one of the best ways to get a booking agent really interested is to show that there is demand and a gigging history for your project...
Can I get feedback whilst working through the course?
Yes - there are comments sections at the end of the lessons where you can ask questions and share results. There's also a private Facebook group.

"If you follow instructions of the Jazzfuel course, it will surely increase your number of gigs - check it out!“

- Marcus Klossek, guitarist, Germany

Featuring the 100% Money-Back Guarantee

I designed this course because I honestly think I can help you book more gigs!

I can be pretty sure about this as, not only have I put all my best strategies into the course, I'm on hand for a 1-to-1 session as well as feedback whenever you need.

However, if you're not happy with the course for any reason, contact me anytime within the first 30 days and I'll give you a full refund.

"The course organises the most important aspects of booking into a very easy to follow schedule, which will enable you acquire everything you need to book more gigs.

- Andrew Neil Hayes, Run Logan Run

Get started now!