There is a saying you have probably heard – don’t mix friends and business (or don’t mix family and business). Many of us ignore this advice and while it usually works out ok, when it doesn’t it goes VERY badly. The complex emotions and attachments mixed in with money make for a toxic explosion that leaves craters where connections used to be.
Letting your friends band play is one such example where things can go south. Say you are talking about organising your birthday party and one of your friends says “Oh you hear this band I heard play at the pub on the weekend, they were freakin awesome, you should book them!”. That’s quite the endorsement and could be good to get booked in, however there are some things you need to consider:
How good of a judge of music is your friend?
How drunk were they at the time?
Is your friend just saying this to be buddies with the band (groupies are a thing!)?
You start to get into murky and probably offensive territory if you started poking around on these issues with them. Like with many complicated things in life, paid professionals not only keep things clear cut but bring with them a wealth of experience to make sure the music plays out as you hope it would.
We know relationship, good vibes and connection is important here and taking your friends advice might be a great way for you to have a wonderful shared experience – it is just with the risks we’ve outlined above.
Agent or friend? Well roll the dice on the friend or make it easy and call us. Up to you of course.