I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
Running a Wedding Band Business – Noam Bargil
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Happy Tuesday! Noam Bargil exemplifies the musician-entrepreneur type I love to talk about on the podcast. Imagine you're a really good trumpet player, newly settled in Amsterdam, and you're on a waiting list for a jazz gig that pays seventy-five euros 5 sets. That’s more or less where Noam Bargil started. At one such gig, Noam got a request from a corporate client for his jazz ensemble. It was his first corporate gig, and he undercharged, but it totally changed his perspective. Noam realized that there is a ceiling on what a good trumpet player can earn, and there's always someone better on the instrument. So he stopped thinking like a sideman and started thinking like a bandleader and, more importantly — like a brand manager. Today Noam runs Benga Band, a party band for weddings and corporate events, plus other acts through his agency, Lupa Entertainment. He played more than 50 weddings this past summer. His acts start above 1,000 euros, and one conference they did for a NASDAQ company paid 3,000 euros for half an hour. Now if you’re doing corporate gigs and weddings in the US, this may not sound like much, but Noam tells me it’s top dollar in Amsterdam. In this conversation, Noam explains that he’d rather add value than cut fees when a prospective client pushes back on price. He walks through what happens after an inquiry comes in and why a fast response matters so much. He also covers how he builds a subs roster so the hired band never depends on one player, and how he decides what to pay his musicians. Most of us send a PDF with our prices and pray. Noam can see when a prospect opens his offer, how long they watch the videos, and how often they come back. This tells him which leads need a phone call follow-up. That tracking runs through an app that Noam built. He calls the app Run The Band. He also wrote a book, Wedding Band Mastery, for anyone who wants to move from player to bandleader, no matter what kind of band they run. You don't need his book or app to use what Noam shares in this conversation. His advice to call every lead costs you nothing but time. The rest is all best practice and principles. 🎧 Where to listen (plus show notes and related links) Get the implementation-depth beneath the episodes.My newsletter Liner Notes Insider goes deeper than a podcast episode can. Past editions archive covers things like royalty recovery tools, release planning, and physical merch as a core revenue channel. It's the implementation layer beneath the episodes. The free edition delivers insights from 300+ conversations with working artists and industry professionals who’ve figured out how to make a sustainable living from their creativity. Get started with the free edition by clicking the subscribe button below.
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The Unstarving Musician
I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
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