Research project: Electronic music artists and their booking agencies

Dr.Oliver Roßmannek

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Within the framework of the research project “Artists within the field of electronic music and their booking agencies”, 846 artists of various booking agencies were invited to participate in this survey, from April 2018 to February 2019. The study aimed to evaluate the relationship between musicians and their booking agencies as well as identify the most important factors that affect their satisfaction. The results furthermore reflect the diversity of the (German) electronic music landscape and provide support for agencies in their daily work.

In total, 226 respondents participated in the study, corresponding to a response rate of 27%. Eventually, 104 questionnaires (of 70 different agencies) were completed.

Respondent’s social characteristics are as follows:

The following histograms visualise participant’s responses:

Agency satisfaction represents an artist’s general appreciation of his/her agency. Higher values suggest higher satisfaction.

Question 1: Overall, I am satisfied with my agency.
Question 2: I would recommend my agency as a great place to my friends and other musicians.
Question 3: I speak highly of my agencies services and achievements.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 4,98

Agency Change implies the wish of a possible change of agency. Higher values suggest a higher probability of an agency change.

Question 1: I am planning to leave my agency during the next 12 months.
Question 2: I plan to remain at my agency for at least the next 3 years. (This question has a reversed scale. Answers were transformed for evaluation.)
Question 3: I frequently think of leaving my agency.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 3,07

Friendships (related) to other musicians within the agency reflect existing friendships with other musicians of the same agency. The higher the value, the stronger these friendships of artists of the agency.

Question 1: I have formed strong friendships with the other musicians of my agency.
Question 2: I feel close to some musicians of my agency.
Question 3: Regarding the other musicians at my agency, I do NOT consider those people as close friends. (This question has a reversed scale. Answers were transformed for evaluation.)

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 4,96

Friendships (related) to staff of the booking acency (NOT musicians) reflect existing friendships with employees of the agency. The higher the value, the stronger the friendships with employees of the agency.

Question 1: I have formed strong friendships with the people of my booking agency.
Question 2: I feel close to some people of my booking agency.
Question 3: At my booking agency, I do NOT consider those people as close friends. (This question has a reversed scale. Answers were transformed for evaluation.)

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 5,25

Cultural fit related to other musicians within the agency describes to what extent an artist’s values coincide with other artist’s values within the agency. Higher values imply stronger value correspondence between musicians of the same agency.

Question 1: The things that I value in life are very similar to the things that my fellow musicians from the agency value.
Question 2: My personal values match my music colleague's values and culture.
Question 3: My music colleague’s values and culture provide a good fit with the things that I value in life.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 4,88

Cultural fit related to the staff of the booking agency (NOT musicians) describes to what extent the artist’s values coincide with the personnel’s values within the agency. Higher values imply stronger value correspondence between the artist and the agency’s personnel.

Question 1: The things that I value in life are very similar to the things that my agency values.
Question 2: My personal values match my agency's values and culture.
Question 3: My agency's values and culture provide a good fit with the things that I value in life.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 4,66

Affect-based trust represents the personal connection between the artist and his/her agency, from the artist’s perspective. Higher values imply a stronger connection between the artist and the agency.

Question 1: Me and my agency, we have a sharing relationship. We can both freely share our ideas, feelings, and hopes.
Question 2: I can talk freely to the people at my agency about difficulties I am having with my job and know that they will want to listen.
Question 3: Me and my agency, we would both feel a sense of loss if we could no longer work together.
Question 4: If I shared my problems with the people at the agency, I know they would respond constructively and caringly.
Question 5: I would have to say that we (me and my agency) have both made considerable emotional investments in our working relationship.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 5,28

Cognition-based trust represents the artist’s perception of agency professionality. Higher values indicate higher perception of agency professionality.

Question 1: The people at the agency approach their job with professionalism and dedication.
Question 2: Given the agency's track record, I see no reason to doubt its competence and preparation for the job.
Question 3: I can rely on my agency not to make my job more difficult by careless work.
Question 4: Most people trust and respect my agency.
Question 5: The other musicians of the agency consider the agency to be trustworthy.
Question 6: If people knew more about the agency and its background, they would be more concerned and monitor its work more closely.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 5,50

Career satisfaction describes the artist’s level of satisfaction with his/her career progress. Higher values suggest a higher level of satisfaction with an artist’s career progress.

Question 1: In general, I am satisfied with my career status.
Question 2: I feel that my career development is satisfactory.
Question 3: In general, I am satisfied with my present job.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 4,57

Extrinsic career goals refer to the impact of external conditions (money, fame, success) on an artist’s motivation. The higher the value, the stronger the impact of external conditions on the artist’s motivation.

Regarding your career, how important is …

Question 1: Earning a lot of money?
Question 2: Having high prestige?
Question 3: Being highly regarded in my field?
Question 4: Having success faster than my music colleagues?
Question 5: Being famous und popular?

Response scale from 1 (unimportant) to 7 (important)
Mean: 4,25

The family and friends construct represents the involvement as well as emotional support of friends/family members in an artist’s professional routine. Higher values indicate stronger involvement of and emotional support by friends/family members in an artist’s professional routine.

Question 1: When something goes wrong at my job, I can talk it over with my friends or family.
Question 2: My friends/family care about how I feel about my job.
Question 3: My friends/family help me feel better when I’ve had a hard day at my job.
Question 4: My friends/family are interested and proud when something good happens at my job.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
Mean: 6,34

The following image shows high negative correlation (-0.83) between agency satisfaction and the wish of an agency change. The results indicate that the more satisfied a musician is with his/her agency, the less likely he/she is to have the wish of changing.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)

The following items (rational trust, emotional trust, cultural fit with agency personnel, friendships to agency personnel) have strong positive correlations with agency satisfaction. Hence, these four factors have a strong impact of a musician’s agency satisfaction.

Correlation between cognition-based trust and agency satisfaction: 0,74
Correlation between affect-based trust and agency satisfaction: 0,72
Correlation between cultural fit considering the staff of the booking agency and agency satisfaction: 0,55
Correlation between friendships considering the staff of the booking agency and agency satisfaction: 0,55

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)

An artist’s place of residence represents another point of interest. Results indicate a stronger relationship between friendships and agency satisfaction as well as cultural fit and agency satisfaction for artists living abroad than for the one’s living in Germany. This implies that geographic distance can be balanced with personal relationships.

Response scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)