Knowing Your Worth: A Quick Guide to Money Negotiation

One of the most daunting conversations to have as an artist is how much to charge to put on a show.

First, make sure to think about why you want to play shows. This will set the tone for everything else.

Performing live can give you the opportunity to promote yourself, gain fans, improve your live show, build a market, make money and give you a chance to connect with people through the passion you put into your performance.

Just like people pay for advertising through PR, marketing, social media, playlist support, and more, your strategy could include live performance.

Since you’re reading this now, you are probably looking to attract and take home some money and/or have some return on your investment. In order to understand how much to ask for, we must first understand the difference between hard ticket and soft ticket events.

Hard tickets are any ticket sales that can be connected directly to an individual artist. In order to determine your hard ticket value in a city or how much you should ask for, multiply the amount of people you can put in a room in the city the show is in (draw) with the ticket price. If you can usually draw 25 people at 15 dollars a ticket, your hard ticket value is 375 dollars.

Soft tickets are ticket sales that cannot be directly linked to an individual artist, like festivals, private events, college campus events, etc. Your soft ticket value will be calculated by using this formula: hard ticket value x 2 + expenses. Expenses can look like transportation, lodging, paying team members you take on the road, etc. This has to be money that is needed in order to play this specific show. Don’t try to add on the cost of the new guitar you have your eye on, since you’ll be using it for other shows.

Now you know what to ask for, but how do you ask for it? When negotiating, be a good person, put yourself in their shoes, do your research, understand their budget and your ticket value, know your boundaries, appear confident, and ask for more than you expect to receive.

If you are not experienced in live performance, have minimal to no draw in a city you’re looking to play in, or there isn’t enough money to pay you what you’re asking for, look at the other kinds of value you may earn from the show.

Put it to the “Perfect 30” test. On a scale of 1-10, determine the value of the payment, career building potential, and enjoyment in separate categories. Don’t accept shows with less than a score of 15.

It is possible to break even or even make money on shows that seem lower on the payment scale through indirect performance income like merchandise and recorded music sales while gaining a loyal fanbase.

This business is full of necessary evils and this can definitely feel like one. Keep in mind that these numbers and calculations don’t signify how much you or your art is worth, but instead serve as a guide when you negotiate price with venues, promoters, and others. The rest is up to you.

Avalon Stone is a grunge-inspired rock artist based out of Kitchener, ON

Website: www.avalonstonemusic.com/