That's Where We Come In

If you are looking for assistance, guidance, and support

From the booking agent who created Norah Jones' breakthrough tour in 2002 and jump-started the European careers of Grammy Award-winning artists like Esperanza Spalding and Richard Bona... Katherine McVicker created this program for career-musicians to learn how to book themselves tours that build an audience, expand reach, and cumulatively bring in higher fees over time.

You'll Learn to:

  • Build Your Assets

    Learn how to store, present, and organize your promotional material to make sure you look professional.

  • Set Up Your Business

    Understand how to calculate financial deals in a partnership with promoters to build a business, increase your profit, and grow your audience.

  • Perform Research

    Review your own music history and learn from other artists to boost your development and plan your future playing.

  • Negotiate with Promoters

    Be able to use industry terminology and understand the do's and don'ts when talking with other industry experts in order to advocate for yourself.

  • Handle Contracts & Riders

    Gain an in-depth understanding of all the components of a performance contract and the right way to negotiate it.

  • Market Yourself

    Think outside of the box with our specialized techniques to market your music on and offline.

Our Course has Partnered With:

Hear from Industry Professionals

“Anyone Can Book a Gig is an excellent course. I’ve been in this business forever, and I still learned a boatload and then some. Full disclosure, Katherine McVicker is one of my agents, and I know she knows the biz. Amazingly, she’s giving us all the tools and insights she’s gathered over the years.”

Singer, Songwriter, Instructor

Lucy Woodward

“It is a must read. The curriculum for Anyone Can Book a Gig is clear, easy to grasp, and insightful. In addition, the creators of this coursework have the necessary professional credibility representing the very best artists in music.”

Director, Jackie McLean Jazz Studies, The Hartt School

Javon Jackson

“Katherine McVicker is a remarkable human being and an endless resource for managers, artists, or any individual who is interested in strategically booking shows. The course she has built is an immeasurable gift to the music industry.”

Vice-President Strategy, Quincy Jones Productions

Thomas Duport

“Working with Katherine McVicker has shown me how to expand my horizons and vision. I’ve known Katherine for more than 21 years. She has a brilliant way of seeing the other side of music today with big and bold ideas.”

Grammy Award-Winning Artist

Richard Bona

“She has a creative and proactive approach—and a background as a musician! Can’t beat that. I’ve worked with many agents over a couple of decades of life on the road and, in my opinion, Katherine is one of the smartest, most competent, most pleasant to deal with, and most professional in the business.”

Grammy Award-Winning Musician

Jon Cleary

“Any wisdom she has to share will be worth your time. Katherine McVicker is one of the kindest, most trustworthy, and most clear-minded booking agents in the performing arts. I’m lucky to have her as a friend and ally.”

Composter, Pianist, Bandleader

Vijay Iyer

We created this course with the confidence of 30 years of routing and booking international tours for jazz and world music legends.


Music Works International and Katherine McVicker come together with decades of experience in booking and routing tours, marketing and branding artists, producing concerts, and more. 

In her 30-year career specializing in jazz and world music, Katherine has helped to develop and support the international livelihoods of a wide range of artists, including Grammy award-winning artists like Norah Jones, Wayne Shorter, Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, Richard Bona, Dianne Reeves, Jason Moran, Kurt Elling, Christian McBride, Jon Cleary, Vijay Iyer, and Lizz Wright. We took the knowledge, shortcuts, and hard-knocks accumulated over years and rolled it into Anyone Can Book A Gig.  

After workshops and private consultations with artists, we knew we could create this course to help musicians develop the confidence they need to book their own shows, market and promote gigs, and make a plan for successful live performance careers.

Meet the author

Katherine McVicker

If you’ve done any kind of serious work in jazz, you’ve probably heard of our director, booking agent, Katherine McVicker. In 2002, she launched the European touring career of Norah Jones and spent seven years developing Jones’ profile internationally. After three decades in the music industry as an agent developing the touring careers for dozens of internationally renowned jazz and world artists alive today, Katherine founded boutique agency Music Works International (MWI) in 2014. Today, MWI books over 500 performances each year worldwide and represents over 30 of the top jazz, Americana, and world music artists performing today. Now, through this course, Katherine and MWI are offering this expertise, accrued over years of experience, to musicians everywhere.

Course Curriculum:

  • 01

    An Introduction to the Program

  • 02

    Step One: Getting Started

  • 03

    Step Two: Setting Up Your Business

    • Introduction: Setting Up Your Business

      FREE PREVIEW

    • The A to Z of Artist Assets

    • Mini-Course: All About Assets

    • What Kind of Assets Every Artist Should Have

    • How to Store, Present, and Organize Your Assets

    • Video Lesson 2.2 - How to Store, Organize and Share Assets

    • Survey #3 - Step 2: Setting Up Your Business [Section Evaluation]
  • 04

    Step Three: Research and Development

    • Introduction: Research and Development

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Research Yourself: The Importance of Tour History

    • Research Similar Artists: Know Your Competition

    • Apply Your Research: Plan Your Playing

    • Mini-Course: Streaming Analytics

    • Need-To-Know Vocabulary for Booking Shows

    • Lexicon of the Live Music Industry Quiz

    • Survey #4 - Step 3: R&D [Section Evaluation]
  • 05

    Step Four: Negotiating Deals

    • Introduction: Negotiating Deals

    • How to Negotiate and Confirm Financial Deals

    • Know Your Show: Types of Gigs and Their Terms

    • Play the Long Game: Take the Door Deal

    • Negotiating Deals at Clubs, Theaters, and Festivals

    • Create Your Own Tour Budget

    • Survey #5 -Step Four - Negotiating Deals [Section Evaluation]
  • 06

    Step Five: Contracts and Riders

    • Introduction: Contracts and Riders

    • The Essentials of Contracts and Riders

    • The Ultimate Contract and Rider Toolkit

    • Understand How Contracts are Negotiated in the Music Industry

    • Survey #6 - Step Five: Contracts and Riders [Section Evaluation]
  • 07

    Step Six: Marketing and Promotion

    • Introduction: Marketing and Promotion

    • What to Do After You've Booked the Gig

    • Prepare Your Knock-out Promo Package

    • Mini-Course: All About Assets

    • Mini-Course: Promotional Case Studies

    • How to Work with a Publicist and Write a Perfect Press Release

    • Build a Database of Local Media and Promoter Contacts

    • Mini-Course: How to Identify Contacts for Your Database

    • Plan a Master Marketing Campaign

    • Mini-Course: Create a Marketing Campaign to Support a Tour

    • Conclusion: Marketing and Promotion

    • Survey #7 - Step Six: Marketing and Promotion [Section Evaluation]
  • 08

    Conclusion: Congratulations!

    • You've Completed Anyone Can Book a Gig!

    • Course Acknowledgements

    • About the Author

    • The Musicians - The Venues

    • Survey #8 - Course Evaluation
  • 09

    Appendix

    • PDF Course Graphics Packet

    • Section 5 Contract Graphics

Anyone Can Book a Gig

We teach you the Six Steps that will help you book shows.

Our self-managed online course is in six complete steps. Each one is specifically designed to explain the live touring industry’s basics to anyone considering a performing career in music. In addition to instruction, you’ll get the Essential Artist Toolkit with over 60 downloadable files, including contract and rider templates, tour history sheets, worksheets, videos, and more. Our goal is to give artists the no-fluff tools and strategies they need to successfully book shows at any stage of their career.
Enroll in the program today for $350

Here's what you get when you sign up for the online course

  • Engaging content on a learning platform designed for your success

  • Step-by-step learning modules written by pros

  • Equivalent of 200 pages of textbook content

  • 16 videos that are authentic and fluff free

  • 7 deep dive mini-courses to enrich your learning

  • Weekly progress task lists to keep you on track and motivated

  • 30 downloadable worksheets and active file templates to integrate the material

  • Video walkthroughs and tutorials of the spreadsheets we use

Watch Intro Video

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If You Haven't Already

Our downloadable worksheets and templates help you:

  • Pull together a Tour History - the #1 thing you need to have in order to negotiate higher fees with a promoter.


  • Build your own professional and agency-approved performance contracts for local and international touring


  • Write a killer Artist’s Biography - one of the most important assets in your toolkit


  • Keep track of your media and share your promo material all in one place with a Tour Assets sheet


  • Create your own boiler-plate press release for any event announcement or new music drop


  • Emergency and add-on contracting documents like broadcasting addendums, technical rider examples, invoice templates, and more


  • Accurately estimate show costs and build a tour budget


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PHOTO CREDITS Singer by Vishnu R Nair/Unsplash. Busker "Cloudy London Day" by Maaria Lohiya/Unsplash. Concert Audience by Freder/Canva. Video thumbnail "Dhangsha and Bantu" by Amar Cura, courtesy of the photographer. Anyone Can Book A Gig simulated textbook cover ** is "Bokanté, Union Chapel, London 2017" photograph by Tatiana Gorilovsky, courtesy of Bokanté/GroundUP Music. The background behind the books is "Snarky Puppy, San Jose, 2012" by Cynthia St. Cyr, courtesy of the photographer. Singer with Cowboy Hat by Lachlan Ross/Pexels. "Empty Concert Stage" by Dennis Kuvaev/Canva. 

**Anyone Can Book A Gig textbook by Katherine McVicker/Music Works International will be published in 2022.

"Anyone Can Book A Gig" is owned by Music Works International, trademark pending.