Every year around this time we engage the managers of the artists we are targeting for next year’s cruises. And every year, we get a handful of managers tell us that they would like to be a part of the cruise but they can’t commit this far in advance because their artist could be TOO huge by the time we sail and could potentially miss a bigger opportunity like playing Madison Square Garden.
It’s never our place to predict whether we think the artist is on that track or not. However, we have no problem reminding them that the success of any artist is directly tied to the type of relationship they have with their fans. We also let them know that every artist should make time to spend a few days with some of the most passionate music fans in an intimate environment. After all, our guests are the ones most likely to spread the word about the artist to their peers once they return home. We often hear from artists who perform on our cruises that they see a dozen or so guests with friends at their shows after the event and it always makes us feel good to see the experience live beyond the ship.
Sometimes our position is received well and the artist jumps on board immediately and other times we wait for another year to pass and check in with the manager to see how its going. This year we were able to at least let them know that John Mayer, Barenaked Ladies and another 80 or so artists who joined us this year are ready to commit to next year because they know that spending time with real music fans is always the best place to be.
So if Madison Square Garden calls, they probably want you bad enough to wait one week and certainly could not hold it against you that you took your fans on vacation with you.