Moderator: Barbara Hubbard, ACTS
Melissa Boyle Aronson, Babco entertainment
Marlene Hendrickson, University of Montana
Chris Moore, Bravo Entertainment
Ari Nisman, Degy Entertainment
Buster Phillips, CAA
Abby Wells, William Morris Agency

Marlene Hendrickson, Melissa Boyle Aronson, Chris Moore, Abby Wells, Barbara Hubbard, Buster Phillips and Ari Nisman

Despite what the name of the panel implies, there's still an art to college talent buying. Although student buying has changed over the years - with regional, full-time promoters taking over many students' domains - agents, like panelists Buster Phillips of CAA and Abby Wells of William Morris Agency, are still working one-on-one with college talent buyers.

The room full of students was proof that one shouldn't count out college talent buyers' place, in the industry.

Barbara "Mother" Hubbard, who has been helping students break into the biz through her ACTS Scholarship for the last 30 years, was naturally the mentor for the panel. She structured a Q&A between college talent buyers and the panelists. She also encouraged students to ask any question big or small with the promise of accepting résumés afterward.

Barbara Hubbard and Melissa Boyle Aronson

"All the time," Wells said. "There's so much that goes into it. If it's routed, if it's a one off, if it's a free show versus public, private versus for students - there's so many factors that goes into it. And prices have to vary and be flexible. ... If the price might be more than what we normally quote, it's because we have to get them there. So for me, there's no real answer for that."

Ari Nisman of Degy Entertainment said "The biggest problem is there is an unfortunate misnomer that colleges have all the money in the world. I hate to say this to my major agency friends, and there's a lot of them in the room here and a lot of them I deliver offers to, but we've got to break the trend that college does not equal dollar sign. And it's a shame that something started along the way that acts can do 300 tickets in a town at the club and yet they're quoting $25,000 for the college to play in the same town."

Melissa Boyle Aronson, of babco entertainment, interjected: "But on the other side of it, when you're structuring your offer, you have to be realistic about it. If you have a gross potential that far exceeds the guarantee you're paying, don't think that's all your money.

"That's something that I've come across with colleges and I've had to explain it before. If there's a profit to be made, you can't offer a band [a price that doesn't include the profit]," Anderson said. If you can "make a $50,000 profit on the show" expect an artist to come back to you. Be prepared for an alternate budget.

A student from the University of Montana asked the next question.

"When I'm trying to purchase talent and the asking price is just too high, I wonder why there aren't more agents willing to see a significantly lowered price as an investment in an artist's development," the student said. Such temerity!

"How can I word it to get some acts to that part of the country?"

Buster Phillips

Wells added, "Be extremely flexible with the day of the week and the timeframe. I know you guys have limited avails but if you want a certain artist you're either going to have to pay a lot of money to get them there because it's not routed or you're going to have to change the timeframe you're trying to book." Hubbard asked the student talent buyers, "Do you offer rooms, which means a lot to these bands going through these days? ... How many perks can you throw in to make them look at that offer?"

This led into a discussion of sponsorships. One student pointed out that his school couldn't take sponsorships or it would affect the nonprofit tax bracket. Nisman mentioned that colleges have a love/hate relationship with sponsors.

"You have to remember there's so many companies that have become taboo," he said. "Colleges don't want banks or credit card solicitations. They don't want stuff affiliated with liquor, cigarette companies and on and on. There are some tours that schools are just passing on because [of these sponsors]."

Then it was the pros and cons of a student talent buyer disclosing the budget. A student explained that "I'll work with somebody and they'll say, 'What's your budget?' Nine out of 10 times what they quote me is close to it." "If an act is $15,000, I'm not going to quote you $300,000 because you have $300,000," Wells responded. "All that [withholding information] does is slow the process for you and for me. ... If your budget can't afford a $20,000 act, I need to know that so I can give you avails for an artist less than that. I don't want to quote you an act that goes for a million dollars because you don't have it."

However, "It's a very fair point," Nisman said, stressing that he'll suspend quoting a price until he hears a number from the college buyer.

Hubbard brought up security issues after 9/11 and the importance of squaring away insurance and contracts. An audience member complained he had to suffer students who didn't read the riders and didn't deal with the contracts in a timely fashion. That led a student from the University of Iowa to ask a question.

"We work on everything from booking to promotion to production. We're reading through riders, we're pushing boxes on and off the truck, and so my question is, how do we fight against the stereotypes that college promoters don't know what we're doing?"

"Word spreads in the industry when somebody does a really good job," Wells said.

"All the people talk within certain genres of music and talk about people who really know what they're doing. Continuing to do a good job is going to be your bestselling tool."