Holds, challenges and releases: how a date is kept

A hold is a provisional claim on an artist’s date. While you hold it, the agent won’t confirm that night to anyone else without asking you first. It’s free, binds nobody to a fee and runs out after an agreed time. A date is confirmed only by an accepted offer and a signed contract.

What a hold lets you do

A hold gives you a place in the queue for a night. You can build the rest of the line-up, check the venue is free and work out whether the budget holds up, while the date stays open for you.

You can’t announce on it, sell tickets or book travel, and the fee isn’t fixed yet. Until the offer is accepted and the contract signed, the artist can still take another show if your hold is released or you lose a challenge.

For the artist side, holds are also information. Three holds on the same Saturday tell the agent that date is in demand. Holds in neighbouring cities on the same weekend are the start of routing.

Ranks

Several promoters can hold the same night. Each hold has a rank: first hold, second hold, third. Most agents rank holds in the order they come in. We do too, and tell every promoter where they stand.

Say [Artist A] has a free Saturday in March. A club in Vienna asks first and gets the first hold. A party series in Munich asks a day later and gets the second, a festival in Zagreb the third. Vienna has the right to confirm first. Munich gets the date only if Vienna lets it go, and Zagreb only if both do.

Don’t write off a second hold. Plenty of first holds never become shows, because the venue isn’t free after all or the headliner the night was built around says no.

How a challenge works

A challenge is how a lower hold gets an answer. When the second hold sends a firm offer, the agent asks the first hold to confirm or release by a deadline.

In the example: on Tuesday at 10:00, Munich sends a firm offer in writing, with fee, deal type, set time and travel. The agent tells Vienna: you have 48 hours, until Thursday 10:00 Vienna time, to confirm on the terms you discussed, or the date goes to Munich.

• If Vienna confirms, Vienna gets the date. Munich either stays second, in case the contract falls through, or is released.
• If Vienna releases, or doesn’t answer in time, Munich moves up to first and its offer goes ahead. Zagreb becomes second.

Deadlines of 24 to 72 hours are typical, shorter when the date is close or the offer won’t wait, longer for festivals planning months ahead.

Give every challenge deadline a day, an hour and a time zone. “48 hours”, sent late on a Friday, leaves the first hold guessing when it ends.

To confirm, Vienna accepts the offer. “Very likely yes, we’re just waiting on the venue” doesn’t count, and the agent will treat it as a release once the deadline passes. Vienna confirms on the terms it was already discussing. A fair agent doesn’t use the Munich offer to push Vienna’s fee up. If Vienna comes back with different terms, that’s a new negotiation, and Munich’s offer stays on the table.

Expiry

A hold runs for an agreed time. One to two weeks is common for club shows, longer for festivals waiting on their line-up. When it runs out, it’s released, unless both sides agreed to extend it.

If you need more time, ask before the hold expires and say why, for example that the venue confirms on Friday or the co-headliner answers next week. With a reason, an extension is usually possible. Once a hold has quietly run out, nobody extends it after the fact.

Release, and the next hold moving up

A hold ends in one of three ways: it becomes a confirmed show, it’s released, or it expires. A release can come from either side. The promoter lets the date go, or the agent does, because the artist took another show, the routing changed or the trip no longer works.

When a hold is released, the ones below it move up one place. In the example, if Vienna releases, Munich becomes first and Zagreb second. The agent should tell both on the same day. Nobody should find out from someone else’s line-up announcement that the date is gone.

Holds that depend on each other

When an artist travels for a weekend, the dates hang together. A Friday in Vienna may only make sense with a Saturday in Munich, because one flight serves both. Then a hold can be conditional: the agent holds the Friday for you, on the understanding that it goes ahead only if the Saturday confirms too. If that’s the case, the agent should say so when the hold is placed, not when the Saturday falls through.

If you’re one of the promoters on such a weekend, confirming early can be worth it. The first confirmed show fixes the trip, and the other dates get built around yours.

What to ask when you place a hold

• Which rank do I have?
• When does the hold expire?
• What do you need from me to confirm: a written offer, the venue, a budget?
• Is the date connected to other shows?

Why agents want offers in writing

A written offer lets the agent rank holds, run a challenge fairly and answer quickly. It names the fee and deal type, the venue and capacity, the ticket price, the set time, the travel and who pays for it, and the announcement date.

“We talked about two” can mean €2,000 landed or €2,000 plus flights. A challenge is only fair to the first hold if the offer behind it is firm. The written offer is also where the contract starts, and everything in it carries over.

Etiquette

For promoters:

• Hold only dates you mean to confirm, and say what you’re waiting for.
• If you’re holding several artists for the same slot, say so. It changes what your hold is worth.
• Don’t announce or sell tickets on a hold.
• Answer a challenge before the deadline, even if the answer is a release.
• Release as soon as you know. A release on Monday leaves the next promoter and the artist time to use the date. A yes on Friday that turns into a cancellation in March leaves them nothing.

For agents:

• Tell each promoter their rank, and tell them when it changes.
• Challenge only with a firm written offer, and give a clear deadline.
• Don’t let holds sit past their expiry without a word.
• Don’t confirm a lower hold before the first has had its chance.