National Seat Filling Launches In Seattle

The Seattle music scene took quite a few hits in 2018. CityArts Magazine closed its doors for good. The Sasquatch! Music Festival also closed its doors. And now there are folks trying to permanently close the doors on The Showbox on Market. None of these things were good news for Seattle musicians as each of them helped to build and sustain the careers of many artists in this city and beyond. But perhaps in 2019, there is a glimmer of hope with a new music industry consulting business that is re-opening its doors.

National Seat Filling is a new music industry consulting business that has just officially launched in Seattle. Originally formed in 2011 as an event promotion company, National Seat Filling has since expanded to include music industry consultation and artist booking. NSF founder Mackenzie McAninch has over 17 years of experience in the music industry having been a venue talent buyer, artist manager, artist booking agent, event planner, fundraising coordinator, music writer and editor, radio DJ, promoter, social media marketer and photographer. 

National Seat Filling offers consultation for musicians and also those with a desire to become a manager or booking agent in the music industry. The consultation services that they will offer are best for those that want to make that step to making the music industry be their full-time job but are not quite there yet. Their consulting packages are designed to offer advice to three different groups of people:

– Individuals who are interested in becoming artist managers or booking agents.

– Musicians who either do not want or are not ready for management or a booking agent.

– Musicians who already have a manager or booking agent and they want to expand their knowledge and resources. 

Each case will be different and the questions will come from the individuals, but examples of help they can offer include (but are not limited to): How to book quality events and make them successful; what to look for in a manager/what to look for in an artist; how to raise funds with crowd-sourcing, marketing and merchandise sales; how to write a press release; how to use social media; choosing songs to release as singles and general album management; how to get radio play; how to properly promote an event or your brand in general.

National Seat Filling is officially accepting clients at affordable rates at www.nationalseatfilling.com. What sets them apart is that their goal is to create more managers and booking agents that can eventually be active in the Seattle music scene and beyond, providing Seattle artists with more resources to help boost their careers. Eventually these services that NSF offers will also expand out of the Greater Seattle area. 

“I’ve been asked many times over the past couple of years if I would manage an artist or band,” McAninch says. “Though I’m flattered by the requests, I’ve declined all of those offers and the next question that always comes is “Do you know any other local managers or booking agents that you can send me to?” And my answer is that while I know a handful of managers and agents, most of them aren’t usually taking on many, if any, clients and quite simply, there just aren’t enough of either in Seattle. So I’d really like to train people how to do it.”  

McAninch will be giving a presentation at the Parke Ave 1 Year Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, January 26^th at The Pirahna Shop at 8pm. More details on that event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/566757940459876