Promoters don’t only make money from ticket sales. Many artist agreements contain a clause to claim a percentage of ticket sales, which can only be done if sales are highly accurate. A booking agent can demand an audit if they feel more tickets were sold than the promoter claims. It’s essential a promoter keep accurate records of ticket sales. It’s for this reason many promoters find additional ways of making money, since the actual ticket sales don’t produce much profit. This can be as high as 90% of the revenue. Most bands will insist on a guaranteed fee and/or a percentage of the ticket sales. if one seller sells out then a promoter may shift tickets from one seller to another. The promoter must keep track of how many tickets each agency is selling and re-allocate if necessary, e.g. These sellers will charge a ticket fee for handling the transaction. The rest may be allocated to different ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster, SeeTickets or Eventim. 25% may be allocated to the band to sell via their website. For instance, they may allocate 30% to the venue to sell via their box office. The usual method of selling tickets is to ‘allocate’ tickets to different agencies. They are responsible forĮach area can be broken down and looked at in more detail: 1.

Sponsorship of the venue, including naming rightsĪ Promoter’s role is to book a band to play a show.

Service income, such as parking, cloakrooms.

However, since artists receive most of the ticket money, promoters make their profits in other areas. Promoters cover their costs by selling tickets to a show.

Mailing lists of previous ticket buyers.

Having booked the artist and the venue, the Promoter is responsible for selling as many tickets as possible. Venues make their majority of their money, not from the tickets sold, but from from a large variety of auxiliary sources. Many promoters and venues are interchangeable, i.e.

However, the venue can provide light & sound, at extra cost, if asked. The venue expect a band to bring their own. ‘Dry hire’ means the stage will be empty, i.e. You can call the O2, as I did once, and ask how much it is to hire the venue. To see a break down of concert costs see my future article about booking agents. However, before I digress, this article is about Promoters. Assuming every ticket is sold, the artist receives: Let’s say, tickets are £25 and the venue holds 1,000 people. An artist’s booking agent will usually negotiate 90% “of the door”. You can usually work out what an artist gets paid. Insist on a payment, however small, or walk.Īt the other end of the scale, large festival headliners can get paid anywhere from £500,000 to a couple of million. Unless you’re being offered the chance to play on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, don’t accept this. There will be an A&R person from a major record label there.Bring 20 friends and we’ll pay you something.A musician has usually spent years learning their craft. the financial benefit of the venue., So, they should pay the artist a share of that value.įurthermore, there is a principle. If a promoter is booking music for a venue it is for a reason, i.e. The Artist FeeĪn artist should always insist on getting paid something, even if it’s a small amount, say, £50. The risk of booking a major artist is the costs are higher and more tickets need to be sold. The risk of booking a small band is that not enough people have heard of them. Put simply, the promoter’s risk is they don’t sell enough tickets to cover their costs. The 3 main costs can be grouped into these broad areas: When a music promoter books a show they commit to take on costs. What do promoters do in the music industry?Ī music promoter takes on a risk by booking an artist to play a gig. What skills do you need to be a Music promoter?.What is an example of a Music promoter?.

How do I become a successful music promoter?.What do promoters do in the music industry?.

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