What Makes A Band Popular?

Personality, Charisma, Energy, Manners, Consideration, Thoughtfulness, Superior Musicianship, Professional Attitude, Appealing Presentation, Good Relations Between Musicians, Experience in Reading a Crowd and Responding Appropriately, Dedication to regular rehearsals and development of skills and repertoire.

Quality Management & Representation, Music and Performance Supervision and Strong Leadership. Stylish Continuous Music during rest time of the band. Ability to build a following through Management, Representation and Consistency in Quality Performances!

IGMC prides itself in cultivating and embracing all of these above qualities.

Break Time: What is Reasonable?

NY State Labor Law requires any type of hourly worker to be allowed to rest at least 10 minutes out of each hour worked. Any company or organization that encourages or promotes less "time off" is participating in UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES and will provide you with disgruntled, unhappy and tired performers.

IGMC requires a minimum of 10 minutes per hour of performance rest time per musician.

Stylish Continuous Music!

Rotating one or two musicians during breaks of the rest of the band is standard practice but it breaks up the unity of the band and the overall quality of the group dynamic is detracted from. It is better to splurge for an outside soloist or duo to take over during the breaks or to put on CD's or Tapes.

IGMC offers all above options for client's convenience and prefers recommending the more elegant form of continuous music.

Repertoire Selection: What Music do You Like? What music to play at your event?

 Frequently there are many issues that arise when thinking about repertoire selection for your event. Many times people will chose songs that they like unawares of the effect this could have on the mood and party results. Other times people allow the band to "play" the crowd, reading what would work best to create the results that you have requested for your celebration.

These are complicated and very sophisticated music production decisions. An IGMC Music consultant works with you very closely on to find the most brilliant compromise in creating an event that matches your tastes, while simultaneously insuring the quality event that you desire.

Security! Getting the Musicians You Hired!

Control of Band personnel and Emergency Back-Up (rehearsed understudies) for illness and the unexpected. Some companies suggest that they have musicians on salary to just sit around and wait for a replacement engagement to pop up for them. Salaries like these do not exist unless the musician is also employed in the office doing sales or administrative work.

IGMC has rehearsed understudies for every position in all bands IGMC represents and has a pool of these musicians to call upon in emergencies

Is the cost really that  Good to be True?

Will this band have a future? Can they afford to stay in business? Will they be around for your event if they cannot afford competitive rates for musicians and amenities that star performers ask for and can get? If you want to be secure that the musicians that you hire are the musicians that you get, you need to select a band that is charging enough to either stay in business or compete with other companies for the loyalty of their more talented performers. If the price is too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

IGMC asks for and distributes top dollar rates to musicians and has loyal quality talented musicians with a track record of years and years of successful bookings with the same artists.d

Viewing Bands on Videos or in Live Performances?

If the band you want is really popular and people are lining up to book them from hearing them at another event, chances are the band may no longer wish to perform in bars or do audition show-cases. If a band is that popular AND has quality management and representation, you are substantially more secure in booking from the video alone.

IGMC books with both videos and live shows where possible. You can see every single musician clearly on the screen as they either sing or perform.

Contemplating about Booking a Band from a Tape or CD presentation?

How do you know if the people who are recorded are actually the ones performing at your event? Just how important is this fact to you? What reason could there possibly be to not make a video presentation of the artists you are selling? Chances are, that if a company is making presentations by tape or CD and not showing you a video or live show, YOU stand a very high risk that you are not hearing the musicians that will actually show up at your event.

IGMC books 90% of it's artists from videos and live shows.

Conversing to the musical performers before your event? 

Many music shoppers have the illusion that talking to the musicians directly before the event gives them the security that the musicians will remember what they said or adhere to their requests. Nothing could be further from the truth.

IGMC supervises and monitors the creation, instruction review and design, and the distribution of written instructions to all musicians so that they have a visual map both before and at the event to guide them in fulfilling the event requirements.

How would you know that your are contraciting a Band Clone?

Will your band "replicate" and be three bands on the night of your event, or five bands? Who does this type of thing and how will you know? As a consumer, this is a very difficult thing to find out without actually hiring a detective or going undercover yourself.

Some clues to watch for, the giveaway signs are: *Presenting bands on tape or CD with no videos or live shows. *Very small companies cannot afford to stay in business unless they double or triple book their bands on popular dates. Over 50% of band leaders trying to run a "Mom & Pop" small booking agency for their own band and sometimes a few others will "multi-book" their dates in order to stay in business.

IGMC books only one engagement per band per "date" and requires musicians to sign contracts that their "Set Band" will be appearing for that date.

Taxes on your band.

In the State of New York, there are no taxes required on musical performance bookings. As a way of compensating referral fees to caterers, many companies tack on a tax charge or miscellaneous fee to your band booking.

IGMC does not charge taxes or any other fees on top of the price of the band.

Gratuities for your Artists.

Musicians are not expecting gratuities after they have been paid their fees. However, a job particularly well done will welcome any gratitude that you wish to show. Gratuities range anywhere from $20 per musician to $200 per musician always given to the leader of the band in cash or mailed in a check to the booking representative with instructions after the event.

Does a Happy Pampered Musician Perform Better?

Musicians that are not "taken care of" and "cherished" will wander away to greener pastures or will loose enthusiasm for their work. Beware the company or band leader that offers too much service to you and not enough pampering to their artist. A quality artist that is not given "rest time", not given ample sustenance or is treated rudely by employers in charge will not go that extra mile to create a fabulous event!

IGMC takes great care in protecting, cultivating, encouraging, nurturing it's artists. IGMC has loyal musicians that go the extra mile to create a staggering event.