Do I need an agent as a musician? How do I find one?

September 9, 2017 4:57 AM

I'm a jobbing/session musician based in the UK, and I'm beginning to get large and frequent enough gigs that I should probably have representation ... but I have no idea how to go about it. How do I find/choose an agent?

The main impetus for this is that I'm very soon going to be recording a TV gameshow pilot with a major network in which I'll be on-screen as part of the band and interacting with the host in pre-written skits.

This feels very much like something I need an agent for, and I'm at the point of going full-time with music stuff, so I could really do with someone to help me find gigs as well as someone to advise me on contracts. Do agents do this? Do I need one as an actor and one as a musician, or can one agent do both?

Most of what I do is a mix of comedy, musical theatre and function gigs, but there's a few projects I'm involved in that are now picking up interest from TV studios. I'm already a member of the Musicians' Union. What's my first step?

posted by spielzebub to Media & Arts (1 answer total)

Response by poster: For the record: we ended up being represented for the show as a group by someone at an agency that the musical director arranged. I still don't really know what I should have been doing as an individual, but now I've got representation for this hopefully I've got a bit of an in for personal representation in future.
posted by spielzebub at 6:37 AM on October 11, 2017