💡✍️ADN #074: Concert Revenue Deep Dive

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on LinkedIn breaking down the earnings of an average club-level concert.

Today, I want to expand on it to show examples of the expenses accompanying those earnings.

Here is a quick breakdown of earnings on an average club-level concert.

• Venue Capacity- 550
• Ticket Price — $25.00
• Artist Guarantee — $7,500.00
• 550 Tickets @ $25.00 = $13,750.00
• Artist Walkout Potential — $10,000.00 @ Sell-Out ($2,500.00 Bonus at 550 Tickets Sold)

Sometimes, a venue will offer a bonus at sell-out, as in this example.

• Sometimes, it is a door deal against the guarantee and expenses, like $7,500.00 versus the right to receive 90.00% of the gross box office receipts after applicable tax and the approved listed costs have been deducted.
• Artist Merchandise — $4,000.00 (Gross)
• Venue Cut — 0–25% (Venues vary on this — It could differ on CDs and vinyl vs. soft goods like shirts and hats — Example — 0% on music and 20% on soft goods.)

Let’s say it’s 20%, so $4,000.00 minus $800.00 (20%) = $3,200.00 net sales (not including the cost of printing).

• Paid Meet & Greet: $150.00 x 10 Sales = $1,500.00 (not including the cost to print any items offered in the M&G package.)

To recap -

• $10,000.00 (earning from guarantee + ticket sales) + $3,200.00 (Merch) + $1,500.00 (M&G).

Artist Walkout — $14,700.00

Then, a business manager uses the income to pay management, business management, booking commissions, travel expenses, gear rentals, crew pay, misc. expenses and finally, payment to the artist or band.

Let’s take a look at those deductions -

• Management — 15% (Less production costs)
• Business Manager — 5% (Less production costs)
• Booking Agent — 10% of the guarantee and any bonuses from tickets sold.
• Bus, Driver, and Gas Per Day (Avg) — $1,612.00 per day
• Gear Rentals — $300.00 per day
• Crew Pay — $1,500.00 per day
• Misc. — TBD

Working off of $14,700.00 earnings from the show, we see the commissions land at -

• Management — 15% of $14,700.00 = $2,205.00 — production of $300.00 = $1,905.00
• Business Manager — 5% of $14,700.00 = $735.00 — production of $300.00 = $435.00
• Booking Agent — 10% of $10,000.00 = $1,000.00

Commissions — $3,340.00

Then, we add in the additional expenses listed above.

Commissions — $3,340.00 + $3,412.00 (Travel, Gear Rentals, and Crew Pay)

Commissions + Expenses = $6,752.00

$14,700.00 (Artist Walkout) — $6,752.00 (Commissions + Expenses) = $7,948.00

Next, let’s look at average taxes -

• Payroll Taxes — 9%
• State Tax — Est. 1% of gross income

In the example above, I am using my band as the reference.

Therefore, there are three of us who split the net profit equally.

It could be a 5-piece band that is hired and a solo artist or many other variations.

To fully estimate a true net profit or loss those variables would have to be taken into consideration along with any cost of goods on merchandise.

This is also based on a single show.

Any earnings from this show would be put into projections for each week, month, and year to calculate expenses vs. net profit across a calendar year.

Here is a Tour Budget Cheat Sheet with additional line items that could be part of your budget and should be factored into your overall financial projections.

Click “File” and select “Make A Copy” to save it for future reference.

See you next Sunday!

Neil Mason

Artist Development

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