Thursday, 17 October 2013

ARTIST: SHOULD I SELL TICKETS IN ORDER TO PERFORM?

By Eric L. Mims J.d.


If you are a rapper or a singer, by now I'm sure that you have ran across the opportunity to do a showcase at some big venue such in your area. The only catch was that you had to buy a certain amount of tickets up front (usually 200) for about a dollar each. The promoter's sales pitch is that if you purchase the tickets at 1.00 each, you can then turn around and sell them to your fans for any price you want and keep the difference as a profit for you or your band.

The only catch is that you have to either buy the tickets up front or sign a contract agreeing to pay a certain amount to the promoter on the night of the show before you perform.

You buy the 200 tickets for 200.00, then you harass all of your friends and family to buy a ticket for 4.00 or 5.00 each....some of them do, the rest say they will before the show, but you find yourself with 160 tickets left, two days before the show...so what do you do....you figure that you've already spent the money.....so you might as well give the rest away so that you will have a significant support for you in the audience, and that's exactly what you do. (right there, you have a 170.00 or 180.00 loss)

So you end up with 200 tickets to sale and two or three weeks to sell them. This is when you find out whether you really have fans or not.

On the night of the show, you're short on the 200.00 and have to come up with the difference out of your pocket. In addition, you're nervous and you're hoping that the people who have tickets actually come. On top of that, you look around and you slowly begin to realize that there are about 40 other artist who did the same thing that you did.

The only time that I would suggest buying tickets to do shows is when the showcase has a headliner. By that I mean that a major act is going to perform at the venue and you are buying and selling tickets so that you can open up for that act.

For example; Say Drake is coming to your town and he is performing at a local venue, and the promoter is basically selling opportunities to open up for Drake. In this case, it will cost a little more. You ma have to buy 1000.00 to 1500.00 worth of tickets and then sell them, but keep in mind that it is a little easier to sell your tickets now because you are not selling tickets to see just you, you are selling tickets to see Drake, and on top of that you're opening up for him!

These types of shows are good if you need practice on your performance or getting the kinks out of your stage fears, but not very helpful to your career in my opinion.

If you want to capitalize off of the situation and possibly gain some new fans, the people who are there to see drake need to be the type of people that like your type of music also. If you are a Rap artist, then you might not want to open up for a classical jazz headliner.

Basically, when you hear that a major artist is coming to your town to perform or do a show (preferably the same genre as you), find out who the promoter is and you will find that most of them offer the same opportunities to perform or to sell tickets to perform.

So basically, showcases with no major headliner.....NO, unless you need the practice performing in front of hostile audiences. Showcases with major headliners in your genre.....YES, but make sure you are show ready..for real!

Peace!




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