Small indie concert and music festivals don’t have the cash flow to wait for their concert ticket sales money until a week before the show like the big players.
In consulting new, small promoters entering this difficult business in a difficult economic environment, concert and music festival consultant Hal Abramson is amazed to find that new promoters do not that Ticketmaster, TicketsWest and every other concert ticketing agency keeps your money until after the show, sometimes up to 2 weeks, usually within 5 days of the event’s end.
Ticketing companies can’t take the risk of paying ticket monies to promoters without knowing the outcome, just too risky world. Due to the track record of promoters, the media also makes promoters pay up front for all of the radio, TV, print and billboards they buy.
So promoters desiring to enter the marketplace need to keep two things in mind with regard to tickets. Have your event funded completely, and/ or consider funding it at least 70% and using your own merchant account or paypal to sell your own tickets, so that the ticket sales money ends up on your company’s checking account with a few days. (less than 70% funding is not a good idea). More than 80% of all tickets are purchased through either credit cards, debit cards or paypal (bank debit).
Abramson says there’s basically 4 ways to do concert ticketing:
1) Using a Ticketmaster type company and surrender all ticket operations over to them
2) Using a ticketing agency like Ticketweb, Front Gate Tickets, Groove tickets or many club shows use wantickets. (Some of these allow you to provide your own merchant account so you can use their convenience but also have funds generated in your account. You are then taking the responsibility of refunding tickets if the event does not take place.
These agencies will manage your online and phone orders, you may then have then print tickets at a small fee for you to open independent ticket outlets at already existing retailers.
3) Paypal, The promoter then pays additionally to print the tickets from a ticket printer like Quicktick, staff their own phone, create a shopping cart and open authorized outlets if desired.
4) Obtain a legitimate bank merchant account and additionally obtain a shopping cart capable of taking customer’s credit cards for ticket payment. (godaddy.com offers a credit card shopping cart linking up with paymentech which offers credit card merchant accounts.)
Using options 3 or 4 offers the promoter total control over fees charged to the customer. The advantage to these methods is that a low $3.00 fee usually covers the $2.75% or so the merchant bank or paypal charges plus any staff, ticket printing and shipping costs. Tickets can actually generate a profit and become an additional revenue stream for every event.
Which method really depends on how involved the promoter wants to be and how much control over the funds a promoter wants to retain.
Whichever method chosen, it’s wise to have all 3 means of ticket selling: phone, internet and authorized retail ticket outlets (at least 10). You simply offer the outlet free advertising generating store traffic for being listed. They can ask for a service fee to offset any charges.
If new promoters want to maximize their use of ticket monies, they’ll seriously consider the options and decide whether they are comfortable in having a company hold onto their funds. In these times, the promoter needs to get every financial edge they can.
“No matter what you do, always imprint RAIN OR SHINE” and “NO REFUNDS” on every ticket. Abramson says.
Hal Abramson lives in Rockville, Maryland, USA, consulting on others’ concerts and festivals and has promoted concerts, music festivals, Ringling Bros. Circus/ Ice Follies, Las Vegas Casinos, trade shows, resorts and retail chains.
His top selling all-inclusive manual, HOW NOT TO PROMOTE CONCERTS AND MUSIC FESTIVALS, and the simplified version, are the best references revealing precious details.
Hal Abramson’s web sites are: www.concert-
This press release is copyrighted in 2011 by Hal Abramson and may not be used by other promoters on the web, without written permission. All rights reserved.
