agency policies & guidelines 

Welcome to Annex! please read the following info on our general MO, if you have any questions – please ask!

CONTRACTS & INVOICES  

We issue a contract and artist fee invoice on your behalf for each booking. These documents are created by us, but are in your name i.e each contractual agreement is between you and the promoter, we are simply your representatives.
If you wish to make your own invoices, we can work with you to do this if preferred. 

Taxes and self-employment status are your responsibility to arrange for and manage. Promoters may ask you to provide proof of your tax residence in an effort to reduce or waive tax that they may be obliged to deduct according to local regulations in their country. It is the artist’s responsibility to provide such paperwork (if they wish to do so).

Though it is always our preference to stick to our own contracts, promoters are increasingly providing their own contracts or appendices to our contract post-pandemic. As such, we may need to make discretionary changes to accommodate this but will not make any major changes without your consent.

PAYMENT

As a standard, your fees are paid directly into your bank account. We request 50% of the performance fee in advance of the booking and 50% balance paid within the week following the booking. We are flexible with payment terms to match your preference.
If you need to amend payment terms, please let us know as soon as a show is confirmed. If you need to permanently amend the payment terms, this will need to be mutually agreed with your agent. 

We try to ensure deposits can be retained should an event need to be postponed. We are, however, often requested to be flexible with regard to payment dates and deposits may not be received until closer to the performance date.

COMMISSION

We take 20% on top of the performance fee per booking as our commission. For landed deals we take 15% from the gross before costs, and for fees over £/€5,000 the commission is capped at 15%. In most cases this is charged on top of your fee.

There is a minimum booking fee of £/€150 required to cover the cost of facilitating each booking. With fees that have a commission falling below this amount, we will ask the promoter to cover the minimum booking fee regardless. In the event that they cannot do this, we will ask the artist to cover the difference from their artist fee.

TRAVEL AND LOGISTICS

We take care of your travel with each promoter but will not confirm anything without checking with you first.
We request for travel and accommodation costs on top of your performance fee and for the promoter to book your preferred routing/schedule. Sometimes the fees are landed, but we will make sure you are clearly aware of how the deal is broken down. Annex can only book and pay for travel if we have received a deposit for the show, we will always as priority ask the promoter to book. 

We ask that artists and/or their management get back to us within a day on travel proposals. If we do not hear back within this time (same / next day), the artist accepts that any increase in the cost in the meantime may come outside the promoter’s budget and thus out of the artist fee. In the case of a landed deal, this comes out of your fee regardless which is why we try to avoid delays in booking. We also ask that if you are replying to travel proposal emails late and the options we have sent do not suit, please find the specific option you would like and send it to us. 

If you wish to change your travel plans after bookings have been made, unless related to a last minute booking, we ask that you take care of any changes yourself.

Ground travel in your country of residence (or the country where you are staying on off days during your tour) are your responsibility. Any costs outside of the agreed budget are your responsibility.

TOURING ARTISTS BASED OUTSIDE EUROPE

Decisions about what period and time frame a tour will take place must be mutually agreed between the artists and/or management and Annex.

We ask that touring artists based outside of Europe take care of booking their own long haul flights. We will continue to coordinate the booking of all the internal travel within Europe. As described above, please send responses to travel proposals within one day.

Off dates during the tour should be arranged at least one month in advance in order for travel to be arranged accordingly. If your base on off days is established later than one month before your tour, we ask that you take care of the travel on the relevant legs. In this case, we will endeavor to have artist fee deposits with you in order for you to do this.

We are not tour managers and unfortunately do not have the capacity to perform the role of a tour manager.. You can speak with your agent about this in more detail if anything is not clear.

ITINERARIES AND ADVANCING

We will provide you with a detailed itinerary in advance of each of your shows. This document has all the information you will require for a smooth trip including local contacts should you encounter any issues. Itineraries are generated within ABOSS, our advancing system for which there is also an app so you can view your itinerary on the go. We will always send you your itinerary well enough in advance to give you time to ask us any questions. Please read your itinerary as soon as you can and make sure to send any queries or requests with a reasonable amount of time for your agent to respond and arrange any of the necessary - i.e. within office hours at least a day in advance of your show. Please note some festivals / events have set deadlines to receive a guestlist and we will always make you aware of this and ask that you come back to us within that time. We will not respond to guestlist requests outside of office hours - please speak to your relevant local contact in the event that you have last minute guestlist to add.

OUT OF HOURS CONTACT

We keep regular office hours between 9am - 5pm - local time of agent - (or on the specific days your agent has told you they are working). Work/life balance is very important for us as our role becomes increasingly demanding post pandemic so we do ask that non-urgent contact be kept within these hours. 

In general, your itinerary should provide you with the necessary info you will need for a smooth trip, including contact numbers for the promoter and their wider team (if applicable). If you have an urgent issue while you are away, please call or text your agent - do not email. 

Please check your itinerary first to verify the relevant local contacts who may be able to help you more quickly. If you have a delay or cancellation while travelling for a show, the quickest way to resolve this is to first go to the airline desk at the airport (or relevant desk at train station) and then speak to the relevant contact on your itinerary to advise of your new arrival time.

EXCLUSIVITY

We are your booking representative for all territories worldwide with the exception of the USA and Canada and as such, we expect you to put all bookings through Annex outside of the USA and Canada with the exception of occasions where you are playing for good friends. Any other exceptions must be expressly agreed between the agent and the artist. 

Please double check with your agent before accepting any gigs with friends to be sure there are no clashes in the calendar. In the case of the USA and Canada, we occasionally take bookings in these territories and can certainly help you if you do not have or wish to have separate representation there.

We do work with subagents in select territories for specific projects – this will always be discussed with you and your team. 

UPDATES / PRESS INFO

We will always do our best to get you the best booking opportunities and fees possible in all cases.
It is your responsibility to keep us regularly informed and updated with press / release info / mixes etc. so we can be sure to be doing the best job for you possible. Please ensure that you keep your agent updated as regularly as you feel is needed with this kind of information. This includes any changes you want made to your press pack (images, bio, links etc…) and on your page on the website. If you are unsure what your press pack currently looks like, your agent can send this to you for review. 

IAC

We are co-founders and members of the Independent Agency Collective. The collective comprises the following agencies: Annex, Ekipa, Futura, Higher Ground, KLS, Outer, POLY & Unfold. We have regular meetings with our agency partners with the aim of sharing information. In addition to this, we are collectively developing shared policies with a view to ensuring better working conditions and fairness within the industry, for our artists and for ourselves.

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND SAFETY POLICY

INCLUSION

Annex aims to embed inclusion into everything we do. This includes the artists we represent and clubs and event spaces we work with.

We are all collectively responsible for creating an inclusive environment and culture for our artists, the people who come to see them, and the staff that operate the venues.

Music venues must be actively anti-racist spaces, taking responsibility and actively working towards supporting its community.

Every person regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, migration status, class, gender identity and gender expression, sexual orientation, sexuality, religion, age, physical condition or ability has the right to enjoy music in a club or party environment that is free from bullying, harassment or discrimination of any kind. Venues must go beyond legal requirements for equality and foster spaces that allow every-body to feel safe, welcome, and themselves.

DIVERSITY OF LINEUPS

We encourage promoters to actively push towards line ups composed entirely or overwhelmingly of white performers and CIS male performers. The Artist and Agency are available to assist wherever possible, e.g. suggesting names at the local and international level. If the promoter fails to adhere to this, the artist reserves the right to cancel the show.

The Artist shall have the right, without prejudice to any other rights the Artist may have, to cancel the Performance(s) without any liability to Promoter under this Agreement if the Promoter does not make every visible effort to prohibit and challenge any racist, xenophobic, sexist, misogynist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist or similarly problematic behaviour/language by their staff, other artists or audience members. This includes language, behaviour and artwork connected to promotion of the event online or in physical format, as well as during the event itself.

SAFETY

All clubs and venues must have a safer space policy or similar. These policies should not be set once and for all; they should change as we learn and grow.

To ensure the safety of visitors to parties where artists are playing, Annex will only work with venues and promoters that actively work to prevent bullying, harassment or discriminatory behaviour and immediately address it if/when it does occur. We encourage venues and promoters to work together with their communities to establish action protocols to follow when this kind of behaviour occurs. That being said, we should not wait for issues of harm to happen but should proactively challenge structural oppression and hierarchy in everything we do. In the same way, we suggest venues and promoters engage in the education / instruction / training of their staff and subcontractors in these kinds of matters.

We encourage venues to take a victim-centred / survivor-centred approach, ensuring venues take responsibility to eradicate such behaviours, and not leave it only up to individual actions. It is important that we all raise awareness about the fact that these forms of discrimination are structural.