Concert Management Exam One

Why Artists Tour

  1. Promote music

  2. Make money

  3. Building their fanbase

  4. Promoting a specific song

  5. Building socials

 

People Needed to put on a Show (before the show - on the frontside of things)

  1. Management

  2. Artist

  3. Promoter

  4. Agent

  5. Attendees

 

4 Major Genres of Concerts

  1. Hard ticket

    1. Ticket is for the artist

    2. Every artist needs to know their hard ticket value

  2. Soft ticket

    1. Conferences, fairs, festivals, theme parks, etc., where they're bringing the artist in, but the artist isn't the draw

    2. It's not about the artist or the concert, it's about the other event

    3. It doesn't matter how many tickets the artist sells

    4. When an artist isn't doing a headline tour, they're trying to book soft ticket events

  3. Corporate events

    1. Usually private events usually - you cannot buy a ticket to see the artist

    2. Chick-fil-A paid for a private concert for all of their Chick-fil-A employees

    3. Usually they pay a lot of money

  4. Promotional dates / Promo dates

    1. Artist isn't making a lot of money, but they're getting more promo than they can buy

    2. iHeartRadio festival, for example

    3. Superbowl half time show - it's why artists pay to do it

 

  • Most tours start in the red

 

Different Types of Dates

  1. One offs - sometimes one offs can be strung together

  2. Tour dates - several dates together, and branding and marketing that matches them all

  3. Fly dates - you fly to the date - a fly date can be a one off - fly dates the venues often provide the backline, you don't bring your own instruments

  4. Acoustic dates

  5. Club dates - this one is growing like crazy in the Christian music genre right now - The End would be an example, but also House of Blues

  6. Fair shows

  7. Festivals (Live on the Green, Bonnaroo, LifeFest, CMAFest, Lollapalooza, every genre has their own festival)

  8. Theme park dates

  9. Support dates (any date you are supporting an artist)

  10. Routing dates (ex; Houston on Friday, Dallas on Sunday, that means Saturday is wide open - it's trying to find an in between date so you're not just sitting around in your hotel) - almost every artist wants a routing date, because you're trying to make the most money - less money than your anchor date (in this example, would be Houston or Dallas)

  11. International dates (most artists do not make a lot of money internationally

  12. Benefits

  13. Drive ins (started during COVID?)

January 21st:

The Art of Touring - why we tour, when we tour, how we tour

 

WHY TOUR

  • Promote music in general

  • Money

    • Date revenue

      • Guarantees - we're gonna give you $5000 to come play this show

      • Backend - the artists win if the show sells well, if it doesn't, they still have their guarantee

    • Merch - artists usually don't make much merch unless you're a headliner playing 10,000+

    • Sponsorship (sponsoring children; title sponsors: Chevrolet main stage, Coke Fan Zone Stage - the title sponsors match the brand of the artist; wrapped buses)

    • Label support

  • Fan base - trying to build that fan base - in a world where numbers matter more than ever

  • Song

 

WHEN TO TOUR

  • Calendar

  • Music/album - in the mainstream world, everybody tours based off their album / around when their albums are released - Tauren Wells did it and he said it was horrible?

  • Exposure

  • Radio - at least in Christian and pop music, you still have to listen to what radio says to an extend (top 40 #1 = millions of people listening to your song)

  • Traffic - what's happening in the market: don't put four Christian artists in Milwaukee within the same 30-35 days of each other, because then the market will choose between shows. Nashville, NYC, etc. are different beasts ("booming metropolises") - A markets, B markets, and C markets

 

WHERE TO TOUR

  • Determine markets - which ones are we going to? - look at data from Spotify, Instagram, ChartMetric, local radio charts, to figure out where the artist's fans are - right venue at the right city at the right time - you build; Exit/In, Ryman, Ascend, Bridgestone, Nissan - you don't want an artist to do a show to an empty room

 

 

  • Home on Sundays - casting crowns documentary that Dean Diehl is in - and Joe Piver works with them

  • JJ Heller was the first artist Joe Piver ever signed (on his own?)

  • You have to be in the right venue at the right time (your artist does)

 

Venues

  1. Clubs - they're made for concerts for the most part - they can be from 1,000 to 2,000 seats

  2. Ballrooms - 500 to 1200 seats, some can be a little more

  3. Churches (only Christian music) - some churches seat 9,000 - churches are also cheaper to rent (no union, you can use volunteers to help set up a show; churches don't charge merch fees; churches don't charge for parking)

  4. Theaters and PACs (performing arts centers) - perks are that the dressing rooms are real (as opposed to churches where the dressing rooms are nurseries)

  5. Auditoriums - they're typically older for the most part

  6. Mid-size arenas

  7. Large arenas - ~16,000, they typically have curtain systems they can set up to make the arena seem smaller

  8. Amphitheaters

  9. Stadiums

  10. Grand stands (fairs and festivals) - about 25,000 people

  11. Speedways

  12. Festival grounds - 100,000+ - Bonnaroo, for example

 

Usually an American artist is only worth half overseas, and only if they're investing overseas

 

January 28th:

What is the job of the agent?

  1. Book shows

  2. Work and put together the deals & offers

  3. Work out venue specs

  4. Routing - where the shows are going to be, and the order they're going to be in

  5. Manage relationships - at least once awake Joe Piver will be at SoHo house sitting there, having lunch, hanging out with managers and spending time with them - relationships are everything; you want to do business with people you like! - it's not just business, it's community; you want to have community with the people you work with

  6. Sign artists

  7. Build packages

  8. Determine the value of an artist - how much is the artist worth? - you never want to pitch an artist for $8,000 if their hard expenses for the show are $15,000 - what are their numbers, the streaming? If the artist doesn't have a lot of availability, prices go up; scarcity increases value

 

  • Radius clause - 150 miles, 90 days before, 30 days after - ex; an artist cannot play a show within that radius within that time period (to prevent competing shows in the same area)

  • Always get everything in writing

 

  • 1H = 1st hold - OUR show, the only way we lose that is if someone challenges and we don't respond within 24 hours

  • 3H = 3rd hold, two people are in front of you - you can challenge it though

  • Holds can get to 20 or 30 deep in bluegrass(?) type shows

 

  • HD market?

 

5 Rules of the Music Business

  1. A working act is a happy act - if they're not getting shows, they're not gonna be happy, if they're not happy, they're gonna leave and go to a different agency

  2. Get it in writing!!! - if you have a call with somebody, follow up with an email afterwards! Always put everything writing!

  3. Never burn a bridge - as big as Nashville is, it's a small community, everybody knows everybody!

  4. The date's gotta pay - if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true

  5. Keep seeing your artists - spend time with them! Know them

 

Things to include in offer

  1. Whose the buyer - name, information, contact information (cellphone, email), venue, venue information (address, name, website)

  2. Financials - they have to write the number they're offering

    • Providing hotels? Sound? Meals?

    • Ticketing? Backend?

 

  • FileMaker Pro - to make offers (documents)

  • Victor Thompson - Moved

 

 

You want the offers to be as detailed as possible!

 

Agents create the offers,

Managers approve or decline the offers

Business managers analyze the offers

 

 

  • Demand

  • Real estate - if the artist has 80 dates they want to do in a year, ? -

  • In one world a band can be worth more than in another - different prices for different styles

 

Managers

All managers are not created equal - the only job you do not need a resume for or previous job experience - momagers, friends, etc.

 

What managers do

  1. When to tour

  2. Where to tour

  3. Approve offers

  4. Building budgets - it's SO so so important to get right

  5. Riders - they'll write up the riders typically with tour manager a little bit

  6. Help design the show - all artists want everything in the world, so a manager will go and help scale it for the budget and get it designed

  7. Help organize the tour

  8. Promote - talking to the tours weekly, daily as the tour is getting ready to kick off - what have you spent on radio marketing? How much money do we have left? Alright, let's take what's left and do this, etc.

 

Promoters

They put butts in seats. They get people to buy the tickets and come to the shows. They are responsible for the marketing, getting the word out, etc. They're doing everything they can to promote the show

 

What promoters do

  1. Put butts in seats

  2. Make sure the day of show is great - make sure the catering is great, etc.

    • Handles all aspects day of show - paying for the venue, writing the check, covering hospitality, hotels, catering, making sure the electrician is there on time, security, staffing, police, traffic control; basically everything day of show minus the 90 minute performance is the promoter

 

Artists

 

What artists do

  1. Create a show that doesn't suck, AND perform it - be dedicated to rehearsing and preparing and putting together something beautiful - something an audience can't get from listening to their music on Spotify

  2. They have to DELIVER, they have to put the effort in in advance

  3. They have to promote, too - interviews (local radio stations), Instagram, etc.

  4. They have to be available - pre-show Q&A, meet & greets, etc. (Zach Williams does eat & greets?)

  5. They have to be as flexible as possible

 

 

Ticket buyers

 

Job of the ticket buyer

  1. Buy a ticket, and then come to the show

  2. Buy merch (at the show)

  3. Buy concessions - most music festivals are not in the music business, they are in the beer selling business, that's where most of their profit comes from

  4. Talk when you leave the show, tell their friends how great the show is - word of mouth is very important! That's how 21 Pilots was built

  5. Social media - post about the concerts and tag the artists! That press helps build the fanbase

 

Some artists will pay extra to the venue to not sell alcohol, but some venues just tell them if they wanna play their venue, they're playing by their rules