What is music event management?

Event management is the task of organising a music event for a live audience, planning a music event is very difficult and takes a lot of time and patience. This is because there are many areas to consider when planning an event including: choosing a venue, promotion, budgeting yourself, setting up the stage and obtaining the correct equipment. There are many jobs available in the event management industry, I will list some careers available in the table below and explain their role. For this project we will have different students assigned to different roles within the event management industry to ensure the event is managed professionally.

Roles in event management	what is their job?
Stage Manager	A stage managers role is to make sure all the equipment on stage is set up correctly, this ensures there has to be no last minuet changes before the performance. A stage manager also has to be very attentive to the performance on stage as something may go wrong that requires fixing such as a microphone stand falling, in the event of this issue the stage manager will have to run on stage and quickly tighten the stand.
Light technicians	A light technician is in control of the lights displayed on stage, often performers will request specific lighting for cues in their song. The light technicians must make sure they use the requested lighting on cue with the music. Light technicians are also in control of different lighting settings such as: Blackouts, Spotlights and strobe lights.
Sound technicians	Sound technicians are responsible for control the sound coming through the PA system to make sure it is at a safe level, they must also make sure there is no feedback, clipping or distortion coming through the PA system. They are also responsible for the monitors which the performers will be hearing through, this is to make sure they can hear each other and themselves in the music.
Health and Safety Manager	A health and safety manager has to make sure everyone at the venue is safe. This could mean keeping the music levels lower to protect everyone’s hearing or supply them with ear plugs. Due to the coronavirus it is also important to make sure everyone is seated at a safe distance. Safety managers must also count the capacity the venue has for the audience, this to make sure the space is not over crowded.
Promotion Manager	Promotion managers are in charge of making the public aware of your event through promotion, promotion can take form in online ads and webpages as well as billboards and posters. Promotion also has to convince the audience that the event is worth the money to go to, this is done through captivating neat posters and attractive posters. Posters often have information of the event on them including the date, time and venue.
Finance Manager	A finance manager is in control of managing the money and making sure the money spent on the performance is used wisely to make sure the event is making profit. This often includes budgeting the event so that they have guaranteed profit, money is often spent on promotion and equipment to make sure they deliver a high quality performance with a big audience.
Contract Manager	During this project the role I have been given is event contract management. The role of contract manager involves forming a contract for performers to sign before the performance, signing this will mean they will all have agreed to the terms and conditions of the performance. The contract will also contain all relevant information of the event including date, venue and performance time.

Venue

The venue the event will be taking place in is the Bradford college Lister Building (room B25), this is because it showcases the facilities at the college to the public which may draw more students to the college for their future studies. Another perk we get from performing at the Lister building is student experience with the music and lighting equipment, this is because at college we have many different lighting and sound equipment which we are still learning to understand, setting up a professional performance with the lighting and sound will make students more confident in there technical skills in music.

My role- contract manager

A live performance contract is always signed by performers before the performance to ensure they do not break the terms of conditions agreed upon by the performer and event manager. If they break the terms and conditions they have signed onto they will not be paid for their performance, some terms and conditions seen on contracts involve: performance times/ dates, set list, name and sometimes an agreement to be on camera. In summary an event contract will have all the information regarding the bands performance and their agreement to the terms and conditions of the event. To make a performance contract you must include all the events of the performance including venue, time of performance and the date. You must also make sure they agree to terms such as being on camera, only performing a certain number of songs, arriving on time and behaving while on stage. The contract must be signed by all performers prior to the event to make sure they can perform, if they break any terms after signing the contract the manager has the ability to refuse them pay.

Making my contract

When making my contract I took inspiration from a contract made by a previous Bradford college student called ‘Finley Taggart’, a few years ago he made a great contract for his live performance. This contract includes all the legal information a band needs to be aware of during a performance, it is also written in a very formal way of speech and has very professional presentation. There are blank spaces for the performers to put down their phone numbers and performance details making them easy to contact if they don’t show up. The contract also includes information of the venue, performance times and the event telephone number, making the event managers easy to find and contact if something does not go to plan. In the additional information section in the contract it tells the performers how to behave on stage in front of an audience and on/ off the venue, the contract says that “there is a zero tolerance policy on alcohol and illegal substances on and off the venue site. Meaning if there is a breach of these policies there will be a disciplinary measure, this section makes the performers aware of how they should behave and warns them that there are consequences.

Draft Contract

This was the first draft when making my contract for the event, this contract was inspired by Finlay Taggart who was a previous student on the music course who also designed contracts for his performance. There is many things I need to improve upon in this contract which include elements such as: grammar and presentation. To improve the presentation I could move the grid to the bottom of the contract to avoid performers signing the contract without reading it, signatures are also usually at the bottom of the contract in a professional event. The contract I am making has to look and sound professional, therefore there is some grammar corrections I need to make such as making sure upper case letters are in the correct place, as some headings are missing upper case characters. Even though I took inspiration from Finlay’s contract I could not copy it as some of the information on his contract does not relate to our event, such as the venue and start times. This is because Finlay’s event took place at a different venue to ours and started at a different time. Therefore all the information on the contract had to be adapted to suit our venue and event information.

Contract

This is the final contract for the performance which has been improved upon since the draft in terms of organisation and information. In my draft the performance and set up times where incorrect and had to be changed on the contract to include the different break, set up and performance times of the event. There was also some grammar issues in the draft contract which needed to be changed, one included missing a couple of upper case letters in the headings of the contract. While another grammar mistake was poor sentence arrangement with commas and full stops in the wrong place. It is very important that there is no grammar issues in a professional contract as it can cause confusion for readers and also looks very unprofessional. To avoid performers signing the contract without reading it I placed the table which they have to sign at the bottom of the contract, this makes sure they understand the terms and conditions of the performance.

I also corrected the address I put on the contract as it was not clear to the readers, this is because it did not include which Building it took place in nor the room we will be performing in. I corrected this by stating the performance would take place in The Bradford School Of Art in the room B25. The contract also did not include the date of the performance which is very crucial information to the performers, so I made sure that was corrected it by including it at the top of the contract otherwise they might not know what day they were performing. To improve the presentation of the contract I added italics on sentences which include extra information for the performers, this also makes the contract look a lot more professional. One minor improvement I made was changing the phrase ‘Serving drinks and water’ to refreshments. This is because it sounds more general and makes it more fluent to read.

Signed copies

Sunday Chaos

This contract was signed by myself and the rest of my band in Sunday chaos, this signature includes everyone’s name, phone number and signature for emergency contact and for verification of agreement on the terms of the event. It also contains out band name and set list so everyone back stage knows what we are performing on stage. The contracts are in bad condition as I had to carry them through rain which damaged them a bit, I had to let them air dry and it caused them to wrinkle. In future I will prepare a plastic envelope to carry them and protect them from water damage.

Taunt

My second contract was signed by taunt, you may notice me and Tia’s name is written down of the contract for Taunt. That is because they do not have a keyboard player meaning me and Tia had to perform on keys for them. Because we are playing for their band we had to write their names down to clarify that we are meant to be performing with them. Tia was playing keys for ‘Friday I’m in Love’ while I was playing keys for their cover on ‘Back to Black’

Hit Makers

This contract was given to the Band ‘hit makers’ which features 7 band members, unfortunately my contract only had 6 rows on the tables. This was a mistake on my part as a professional contract would have a row count of the maximum band to avoid people writing outside the grid. To improve on this mistake next time I will make sure to know the highest band member count to make sure all the band members can write inside the grid, by asking the event manager what the band with the most members is.

Faith- Solo performance

Faith only signed one contract for her solo performance as she was not put into a band. Our tutor Nic was playing guitar on stage for her, however he did not have to sign the contract as he is a member of staff at the college.

Lucy- Solo performance

This contract was for Lucy’s solo performance which featured two songs as mentioned on the contract. For Lucy’s performance Nic our tutor was playing piano, he did not need to sign the contract as he was a member of staff.

Niall and Millie- duo performance

This contract was signed by Niall and Millie for a duo performance on the song ‘Riptide’.

Indecisive

For Indecisive Megan and Lucy’s name is down for the performance contract even though they are in Y2 college bands, this is because they did not have any singers. This lead to Megan and Lucy having to sing for their set list, this included lead vocals and harmonies.

SOurce List

Bradford College, n.d. Picture of Lister Building. [image] Available at: <https://www.bradfordcollege.ac.uk/help/knowledge-base/lister-building/> [Accessed 22 October 2021].

Mctaggart, F., n.d. Event management – Finlay Mactaggart. [online] Digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk. Available at: <https://digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk/10577750/event-management/> [Accessed 22 October 2021].

Walpole, D., 2016. Live Performance Contracts: What to Include & When to Use. [online] Dave Ruch. Available at: <https://daveruch.com/advice/live-performance-contracts/> [Accessed 24 October 2021].