The next in my occasional series about how to put on a gig, (I really wanted to call this post Money-go-Round after The Haywains song but thought a more descriptive title was in order)

Much of this post may obvious if you’ve got a bit of experience about playing or putting on gigs - but it’s an important topic for someone thinking about putting on their first night, as no one wants to lose loads of money when doing so.

Once again, this is from my experience and attitude to promoting and all comments about how others do things are gratefully received.

If you’re here to find out how make money out of putting bands on then you’re on the wrong blog I’m afraid.

Things you may spend money on

When running a night, your costs might include things like venue hire, someone to do the sound, band travel expenses, getting your posters and flyers done and other promotion type stuff, and anything special you want to do on the night like putting sweets out.

This sounds a lot more scary than it actually is. For example, things like poster and flyer costs don’t come to that much and if you’re putting bands on as a hobby rather than a business then the odd ten quid towards a new printer cartridge or some photocopying isn’t that much to spend every now and then. Most hobbies cost a bit but if you (and the well-being of live music!) get more out of it then it’s worth it.

So that just leaves band costs, venue costs, and the sound man as the main things you’ll spend money on.

Venues run all kinds of deals, some want a small lump sum (£50ish is about the cheapest you’ll find though it depends on the capacity) but it’s also fairly common to find places with free room hire if they make enough money behind the bar.

I’m really comfortable with this type of deal, because although you spend the night in a state of worry if people are buying enough drinks or going to another of the venues bars to buy things, if they make enough behind the bar then the venue cost is *nothing*.

(on an aside there’s actually a really good point here for general gig going – if you do have a choice between the bar that the gig is in or another bar in the same venue, it might save the promoter a bit of money if you get drinks from the gig bar)

Dedicated music venues should have a PA included in the room hire - and things like a CD (or record) player too - so you don’t have to worry about that side of things.

Someone who knows how to do the sound is vital, and some venues include it in their costs, others may supply one who you need to pay yourself (as a guide it’s roughly 40 to 50 quid-ish). I generally try and cover this with some of the door takings.

Which just leaves you needing money to pay the bands, and at Autumn Store nights this is where the rest of the door money goes.

Some bands will ask for a guarantee which is basically how much they’ll play the gig for and it may be more common for bands who are coming from a distance to ask for one to make sure that they’re not going to book loads of train tickets or use up a tank of petrol and end up footing the whole cost themselves. Others may not ask for an exact sum, but it’s best to explain what will happen with the door money so they get an idea of how much they’ll get towards travel.

How much should the door price be?

Good question. I do find it tricky to set the door price. It’s a delicate balance between making sure the bands aren’t losing loads of money, and not wanting to feel like I’m charging people way too much and ripping them off. Generally, you’ll find that something like

Door price = (venue costs + sound tech costs + band costs – amount you’re happy to lose yourself)/number of people you expect to turn up

works ok.

Remembering that venue costs and sound tech can sometimes = nowt depending on what deal the venue do. You should also get by without losing anything youself on the night if you get the door price right, but I thought it was worth putting in the equation because I like equations with loads of bits.

I really want to run an honesty box system or do whip-rounds where people pay what they think the gig is worth instead of the usual money on the door thing. I think it’s more fair but I’ve not had courage to yet. One day…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 11:50 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.