Booking a Rock Show: Free vs Tickets

Video Transcript

"Hi. This is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village. And I'm here to talk to you about deciding whether or not to do a free show or a ticketed show when you're booking a show at a club. Now it's tempting sometimes to want to put on a free show because then maybe you'll get a larger audience. If a show is free, it's not going to be a deterrent to people who want to come in and see the show. But sometimes free shows actually work against you because not only is it going to cut into how much money you're going to make, which is nothing unless you're selling merchandise, but also a free show may make people think, "well, what's wrong with it then." Sometimes charging tickets is actually a better way to attract people. On the other hand, if you're charging a lot of money at a show, people who would normally want to come see you may decide that it's just way too much money because a lot of music fans, particularly people who go to small venues, are also kind of broke. So ten dollars may be too steep a ticket price. I generally think that something in the five to eight dollar range is fair. That's enough where the bands are going to make a decent amount of money and the audience isn't going to feel like they're getting ripped off. Ten dollars is good if it's a special event. But at a small venue if you're paying more than ten dollars, it should really be something spectacular and you have to expect that the money is going to be a deterrent to a lot of people."