09-05-2016, 08:44 PM
About 10 years ago BNL's manager posted a break down of the average earnings on a short tour.
To paraphrase, he used a 22 date tour in 2000 seater theater venues with tickets averaging $35-$55. It boiled down to a $1.5 Mill net which after expenses gave each band member $45,000. Clearly with inflation those numbers are probably double now as theatre shows generally cost $60-100. Anyway, it's an interesting read.
From Fin:
What he's speaking about is simply venue economics. If he wants to see an established artist in a theater or smaller setup arena (and if we want to play theaters/arena theater configs and turn a profit of sorts), that costs more, particularly on a one month tour as we can't leverage any costs over 150 shows). Obviously in the BIG arena's where capacities can be that much higher, the ticket prices can be that much lower and he can choose to sit 300 feet away and save a few $. But you won't see many artists doing 25.00-35.00 tickets on a theater tour. We're anywhere from 35 to 55.00 in USA on this tour depending on venue size and costs and what promoters think fair value in market is.
For a peer comparison...
Rob Thomas
King PAC / Melbourne ,FL: 45.00-65.00 plus fees
San Diego / Copley Symphony Hall 47.50 plus fees
In the case your Blog friend recites...here's a rough idea of how it would breakout.
60.00 Gross / Paid by customer
-7.00 Ticketmaster / 11.6 % of gross
=====
53.00 Advertised Ticket price
-3.47 Local Tax /restoration fees or similar/ using 7% as an average (and this is low)
=====
49.53 Ticket Net of Taxes and Fees
-12.38 Show costs / 25% (venue rental, stagehands, catering, advertising,other acts)
=====
37.15 Net Revenue to split between artist and promoter (62% of what he paid for his ticket)
5.57 Local Promoter profit (15% after taxes and costs)
=====
31.58 85% remaining to artist (59.5 % of what he paid goes to artist). A touring rule of thumb is that the artist wants to be taking over 50% of gross, which means the costs for the event are in line.
Based on a 2000 seat venue if ALL tickets were at that scale. artist gross would be $63.160.00. as there would be at least one lower ticket scaling....lets drop aprox 10% of that revenue and call artist gross $56,844.00 This is assuming we do sellout business and sell EVERY ticket in the venue (which we don't...artist comps, house tickets, promoter tickets, Marketing tickets, trouble seats, obstructed seats, wheelchair holds) so considering that....BNL would net...hmm...53,000.00 from the show.
Of that net to artist...we pay booking agent and management commissions, artist tax withholds (federal, state), all touring crew salaries, touring sound system , touring lighting system, touring video system (if), artist and crew hotels, flights, insurance, trucking, buses, fuel, touring set costs and rehearsal costs, per diems, immigration fees, legal, all consumables (strings, sticks, picks), taxi's, hookers, pitbulls and crack.
Taking it one step further...
A 22 show tour at 53,000.00 per show would net BNL $1,166,000.00. We know some of our venues are larger and our grosses will reflect that..so lets say the BNL net is 1.5 Million. Artist internal costs as stated above consume 70% of artist revenue or $1,050,000.00...so that leaves us with $450,000.00 as artist net at end of tour.
From that, 50% is held back for operating costs of our business, storage space, rehearsal space, yearly insurance, communication, capitol purchases (equipment), accounting,legal, maintenance and the like.
Net to BNL.....225,000.00. 5 members, so 45,000.00 ea for the tour or $2,045.45 per show each..and then each have to pay their own taxes and personal expenses. Busting that down even more....92.00 per song (22) each or $17.00 per minute (120) on stage for each member.
I imagine each BNL member would make on the entire tour about what Henley would pocket per show personally. The Eagles top ticket at the Pond in Anaheim is 175.00 plus fees and their lowest ticket is 25.00 way up in the nosebleeds so they'd easily be grossing 1 or 1.2 mil. 60% or so to artist (likely more to them as they are a slam dunk sellout and can do very tough deals). 750k per show to artist X 22 shows is a comfy $16,000.000.00 for one tour leg and they've been saying goodbye for about 3 years so far...100's of shows. Talk about comparing apples to ham..
Fin
To paraphrase, he used a 22 date tour in 2000 seater theater venues with tickets averaging $35-$55. It boiled down to a $1.5 Mill net which after expenses gave each band member $45,000. Clearly with inflation those numbers are probably double now as theatre shows generally cost $60-100. Anyway, it's an interesting read.
From Fin:
What he's speaking about is simply venue economics. If he wants to see an established artist in a theater or smaller setup arena (and if we want to play theaters/arena theater configs and turn a profit of sorts), that costs more, particularly on a one month tour as we can't leverage any costs over 150 shows). Obviously in the BIG arena's where capacities can be that much higher, the ticket prices can be that much lower and he can choose to sit 300 feet away and save a few $. But you won't see many artists doing 25.00-35.00 tickets on a theater tour. We're anywhere from 35 to 55.00 in USA on this tour depending on venue size and costs and what promoters think fair value in market is.
For a peer comparison...
Rob Thomas
King PAC / Melbourne ,FL: 45.00-65.00 plus fees
San Diego / Copley Symphony Hall 47.50 plus fees
In the case your Blog friend recites...here's a rough idea of how it would breakout.
60.00 Gross / Paid by customer
-7.00 Ticketmaster / 11.6 % of gross
=====
53.00 Advertised Ticket price
-3.47 Local Tax /restoration fees or similar/ using 7% as an average (and this is low)
=====
49.53 Ticket Net of Taxes and Fees
-12.38 Show costs / 25% (venue rental, stagehands, catering, advertising,other acts)
=====
37.15 Net Revenue to split between artist and promoter (62% of what he paid for his ticket)
5.57 Local Promoter profit (15% after taxes and costs)
=====
31.58 85% remaining to artist (59.5 % of what he paid goes to artist). A touring rule of thumb is that the artist wants to be taking over 50% of gross, which means the costs for the event are in line.
Based on a 2000 seat venue if ALL tickets were at that scale. artist gross would be $63.160.00. as there would be at least one lower ticket scaling....lets drop aprox 10% of that revenue and call artist gross $56,844.00 This is assuming we do sellout business and sell EVERY ticket in the venue (which we don't...artist comps, house tickets, promoter tickets, Marketing tickets, trouble seats, obstructed seats, wheelchair holds) so considering that....BNL would net...hmm...53,000.00 from the show.
Of that net to artist...we pay booking agent and management commissions, artist tax withholds (federal, state), all touring crew salaries, touring sound system , touring lighting system, touring video system (if), artist and crew hotels, flights, insurance, trucking, buses, fuel, touring set costs and rehearsal costs, per diems, immigration fees, legal, all consumables (strings, sticks, picks), taxi's, hookers, pitbulls and crack.
Taking it one step further...
A 22 show tour at 53,000.00 per show would net BNL $1,166,000.00. We know some of our venues are larger and our grosses will reflect that..so lets say the BNL net is 1.5 Million. Artist internal costs as stated above consume 70% of artist revenue or $1,050,000.00...so that leaves us with $450,000.00 as artist net at end of tour.
From that, 50% is held back for operating costs of our business, storage space, rehearsal space, yearly insurance, communication, capitol purchases (equipment), accounting,legal, maintenance and the like.
Net to BNL.....225,000.00. 5 members, so 45,000.00 ea for the tour or $2,045.45 per show each..and then each have to pay their own taxes and personal expenses. Busting that down even more....92.00 per song (22) each or $17.00 per minute (120) on stage for each member.
I imagine each BNL member would make on the entire tour about what Henley would pocket per show personally. The Eagles top ticket at the Pond in Anaheim is 175.00 plus fees and their lowest ticket is 25.00 way up in the nosebleeds so they'd easily be grossing 1 or 1.2 mil. 60% or so to artist (likely more to them as they are a slam dunk sellout and can do very tough deals). 750k per show to artist X 22 shows is a comfy $16,000.000.00 for one tour leg and they've been saying goodbye for about 3 years so far...100's of shows. Talk about comparing apples to ham..
Fin
