Booking your wedding musician: Planner, Agency, Blog or Direct Contact?

Here are three options listed from best to worst and at the end I give my top tip for getting it right.

Wedding planners have special relationships with local musicians and may be able to negotiate with them to better fit your budget. They only recommend professional musicians they know they can trust, because after all their reputation is on the line too. Your planner will make the booking and take care of all the details, saving you time and worry.

Bridal blog and wedding vendor websites always require the acts on their sites to pay to be listed. It is straight up advertising paid for by the musician. The musicians that pay most are listed first, regardless of their ability or experience. Bridal websites and blogs have no involvement in the booking process and you contact the musician directly using the contact details from their advertisement.

Online talent agencies sometimes require musicians to pay to be listed on their sites. Musicians who pay the most are listed first, regardless of ability or experience. The involvement of online talent agencies stops the moment after they take your payment. They do not represent acts on their sites in any way other than to take bookings.  

Online talent agencies typically take 20 percent of the amount you pay as their commission with GST on top of that. The musician usually receives his or her fee several weeks after the performance. 20 percent is a huge slice to take but it is common with Australian online agencies. It is scandalous in my opinion if you consider that 10 percent is the usual commission rates charged by agencies based in other countries.

Compounding the problem for Australian musicians is that have a bad habit of undercutting themselves when quoting to an online agency. The thinking is ‘I will quote 20 percent less than I would normally would to play this number of hours so that the agency gets their enormous slice but I still get the booking.’

On top of that all musicians contacted by an online agency know that there are probably several other musicians being asked by the client to quote for the same wedding or gig and therefore they undercut themselves again and again for some perceived advantage. It is a race to the bottom that never seems to end.

Contacting a wedding musician directly probably means saving money compared to all of the above options and is a lot better for the musician. I recommend you contact several wedding musicians located near your ceremony location as far in advance as you can. After their first email reply you will probably learn enough to be able to whittle the list down to 1 or 2 performers.

Which one should you choose? Always choose the wedding musician with the most wedding experience. Wedding music professionals work well with other wedding vendors, are tactful and respectful to your guests and have the experience to deal with just about any unforeseen eventuality on your big day.