You buy a ticket. Band plays. Venue pays.
Sounds simple. And, for the most part, it is.
In basic terms, bands and promoters agree on a performance date and a price and sign a contract.
But for promoters trying to turn a profit or at least break even, it becomes a complicated process of guessing how many fans will show up and how much they’ll pay.
“The rule of thumb in almost any case — it doesn’t matter if you’re at the Waiting Room, Sokol or the Qwest Center — the band is going to walk away with 50 percent of (estimated) ticket sales,” said local promoter Marc Leibowitz, who has booked thousands of shows with his company One Percent Productions.
As an example, Leibowitz cited pop-electronic band MGMT. He estimated that about 1,000 Omaha people would pay $20 per ticket. Therefore, he thinks MGMT could be booked for $10,000.
That number is figured for a “hard ticket” show, meaning there is only one price point and one headliner. If two or more headliners perform or tickets have different prices (like how you would pay higher prices for a better seat at the Qwest Center), the math becomes more murky.
While $10,000 may sound like a lot of money, it’s even more expensive to book a band for a festival or a college- or city-sponsored concert.
If it’s one of those types of shows, bands automatically ask for two to three times what they normally receive because they assume cities and colleges have deeper pockets.
Using MGMT as an example again, Leibowitz estimated that if you had to pay them $10,000 to perform at Slowdown or Sokol Auditorium, you would have to fork over at least $25,000 to book them for a festival concert.
Things can get dicey for concert promoters because the contract they sign guarantees that the band gets paid — no matter what.
Say Leibowitz books MGMT at Sokol for $10,000, expecting 1,000 people. If only 100 buy a $20 ticket, he would still have to pay the band the agreed-upon $10,000, even though he only received $2,000 from ticket sales.
“This business is professional gambling,” Leibowitz said. “The key is not knowing how much the band gets paid, but how well the show will do.”
Contact the writer:
444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com
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