Book A Celebrity Entertainer

Why Book Through The Images Agency?
Hiring a Celebrity can be a tricky process. First you have to know where to look to find their representation. Then there is negotiating the deal, making travel arrangements, providing production, hospitality, moving them from point a to point b in your town or city.. The Images Agency acts on your behalf to assist you through all of the hudles of bringing a Celebrity to your event.

Before Calling The Agent
The most important thing you need to know about booking a celebrity is how much can you afford. You are far better off knowing your budget before you approach your booking agent.

For instance, somebody like Taylor Swift commands a six figure paycheck, plus travel accommodations, rider requirements and hospitality. You will easily spend over a million dollars to book an entertainer like Taylor Swift.

You may look through our list of celebrity headline acts to get an idea of which acts will fit into your budget. Also, if you have an act in mind and don't see it listed , just give us a call, we have access to every celebrity act imaginable.

What To Budget For
Beside the Celeb Appearance Fee, there are a number of other items that need to be in your entertainment budget.

You will have to provide for Airfare and Hotel Rooms for everyone in the entertainers entourage. Sometimes this isn't as bad as it sounds, it really depends if you are booking a performance, a speaking engagement or just a hosting appearance. If you don't want the hassle of having to make all the travel arrangements you can ask your booking agent to provide an "All Inclusive" or "All in" quote. This means that the booking agent or artists agent will make the travel arrangements. You will usually have to arrange for the local ground transportation, which can range from limosines to buses and trucks.

You will have to budget for production services. Simply put, sound, lights and backline gear. This is all covered on the artists tech rider. Of course if you are just booking a hosting appearance this won't apply. This is where your Images Agency booking agent becomes very handy. Our agents have connections with production companies worldwide. We can assist you in assembling the technical items needed to bring the show to your audience.

The Images Agency, at your request, will even send one of our agents to your event to supervise everything from load in, (arrival) to load out (departure). This usually makes things go nice and easy, so there is less for you to worry about.

Hospitality
This is the part of the celebrity rider that provides for a bowl of M & Ms with all the blue ones removed. Thankfully that is more the exception than the norm.

Hospitality includes how many towels are needed in the dressing room, meal requirements, bottles of water, soft drinks, beer and booze. etc. This often applies to both the event venue and at the celebrity's hotel room.

These lists can be quite detailed , but most of the time are usually down to earth and very reasonable. All of this you must include in your entertainment budget.

Calling The Agency
Now when you call the agency you will be able to answer our questions. Who do you wish to book, what did you budget for the appearance fee? Do you need an "All Inclusive Quote"? Do you want us to provide production? How much did you budget for production? What is the date of your event? What city? What venue? These are the types of questions you should be prepared for when callin the agency.

Your agent will prepare an information sheet for your event. Once he has all your contact information, including your street mailing address, he will approach the artist representitives to inquire if the artist is available for your event date. Sometimes the clebrity may already be booked on that date, or may not be taking any new bookings. Then your agent will either make your offer for the appearance or request a fee quote. You can expect some back and forth until a final deal on the appearance fee is reached.

Once the deal is made, its time to sign the papers and make a deposit.

The Contract
Signing the contract is usually a one or two step process. It all depends on how the artist rep wants to handle it. Most of the time you sign one contract with the agency for the appearance, make your deposit, and then all the other legal details are handled between the agent and the celebrity's management.

However, sometimes the management team wants a contract made directly with you, the buyer. In that instance you will sign a retainer agreement with your agent, make the deposit, which your agent will place in escrow. A few days later your agent will forward the management's formal contract for the appearance, which you will sign and this will finalize the appearance.

The Deposit
How much should you plan for the deposit? This sometimes gets tricky, as it is not always a simple 50% down. So here is how things all come together to determine how much your deposit wil be.

First, the celebrity's appearance fee is almost always half down. However, the airlines, and hotels usually want 100% down, so that is added to your deposit. If you are have your agency provide production, the production company will want half down. That is added to your deposit. Finally your agent's fees usually 10 to 20 percent of the entire bill are always paid in full in advance, that is also added on to your deposit.

So your deposit will usually end up to be about 60 to 75 percent of the entire fee. The remaining balance amount is ALWAYS paid IN CASH on the date of your event before the celebrity appearance begins.

Finishing Up
That's pretty much all there is to booking a celebrity appearance. Our agents are always ready to help you out and answer your questions. You may contact us at anytime by calling The Images Agency at (414) 727-6588.

We look forward to helping you with your upcoming event.

Booking Agent of Headline Acts