How to know the difference between agents and agencies

When thinking about how you would like to be represented and by whom, as a performer, it is important to know the difference between an agent and an agency so that you know what you are signing up for if you apply to one.

An agent is usually an independent party of one person who has the job of personally finding you paid work and helping your career. An agent will do things like finding you roles, contacting you to inform you of important events and liaising with you and all of their clients personally.

However, an agency is a vast amount of separate agents that all answer to the boss within their agency. An agency is effectively the higher arch which makes individual agents that work in an agency the employees and the performers represented by an agent (and therefore an agency) the clients.

When contacting a talent agency to inquire as to whether or not you are able to work with them, you will probably be assigned an individual as your agent and this person will definitely be the one that you get to know and talk to most out of the entire agency because you are their personal client and their job is to help you. The agency's job is more to do with assigning an agent to a client and not assigning a client to a job.

In conclusion, when you are contemplating who you'd like to represent you as an artiste it is important to consider both which agency you would like to be represented by as well as which agent you'd like to work with. Remember that an agent and an agency, though interlinked, are very different things and that in order to have agent representation you will probably have to contact and talk to an agency and an agent, but once you have secured an agent, you should be enjoying the performers life and auditioning for jobs all the time.