What to do promoters pay???

[Paul Louth]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

If you are just starting out be happy if you just break even.

Personally I wouldn't be happy with breaking even. Make sure you make money. I know it sounds brutal, but it will give you more cash to put into the next party. Don't take too many risks. If you're spending money on promotion, work out how many people you expect to get for that outlay. For example, flyers, they're only good if you have somebody on the flyer that people know. We do Prologue in London without flyers, because we work with local up n coming DJs.

When you start make sure every DJ you book knows he's part of the promotion too. Tell them that if they don't bring 50 people then you'll never book them again.

It sounds harsh, but if you lose money you can't keep going.

[Jenks]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

+1

[phil]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

Personally I wouldn't be happy with breaking even. Make sure you make money. I know it sounds brutal, but it will give you more cash to put into the next party. Don't take too many risks. If you're spending money on promotion, work out how many people you expect to get for that outlay. For example, flyers, they're only good if you have somebody on the flyer that people know. We do Prologue in London without flyers, because we work with local up n coming DJs.

I guess it also depends on the market you are in.. Here in Minneapolis if I break even on a show where the name isn't Mark Farina, BT, Digweed, etc I'll be thrilled. I've lost more than I've gained when bringing in out of town talent but keep on going as you wouldn't see the likes of James Holden, Mazi, Habersham, Paul Louth, Opencloud, Son Of The Electric Ghost, Lostep, etc in this town if not for individuals like myself and a few others.

I try to offset my losses from the above with my regular more 'commercial' house club residencies. With all the upscale clubs in our area being focused toward the Top 40 market as well as no dance music support on radio stations outside of trance and stuff like Benny Benassi's Satisfaction it makes for quite a difficult time to pull in people for a minimal or IDM show. In our town people are thrilled if 200 people show up for a more 'underground' name. To scale, our town's largest shows on a good night (I'm talking Delta Heavy, Mark Farina, Tiesto) draw in between 1,000 to 1,200 people.

I'd agree about flyers in certain aspects, but I do tend to think, at least in our area, that a good indicator of a succesful night will be someone who spent the money and time to distribute flyers to try to get that extra turnout if at all possible.

[Paul Louth]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

I guess it also depends on the market you are in.. Here in Minneapolis if I break even on a show where the name isn't Mark Farina, BT, Digweed, etc I'll be thrilled. I've lost more than I've gained when bringing in out of town talent but keep on going as you wouldn't see the likes of James Holden, Mazi, Habersham, Paul Louth, Opencloud, Son Of The Electric Ghost, Lostep, etc in this town if not for individuals like myself and a few others.

I try to offset my losses from the above with my regular more 'commercial' house club residencies. With all the upscale clubs in our area being focused toward the Top 40 market as well as no dance music support on radio stations outside of trance and stuff like Benny Benassi's Satisfaction it makes for quite a difficult time to pull in people for a minimal or IDM show. In our town people are thrilled if 200 people show up for a more 'underground' name. To scale, our town's largest shows on a good night (I'm talking Delta Heavy, Mark Farina, Tiesto) draw in between 1,000 to 1,200 people.

I'd agree about flyers in certain aspects, but I do tend to think, at least in our area, that a good indicator of a succesful night will be someone who spent the money and time to distribute flyers to try to get that extra turnout if at all possible.

That's cool, different areas/scenes require different types of promotion. The job of a good promoter is to work out what it takes to get people through the door. And it's obviously not something you can work out on your first party. So making sure you don't bomb and lose a fortune is definitely the order of the day. I remember the first big party I did and we lost ?1000, I learned some valuable lessons from that I can tell you

[influx]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

I guess it also depends on the market you are in.. Here in Minneapolis if I break even on a show where the name isn't Mark Farina, BT, Digweed, etc I'll be thrilled. I've lost more than I've gained when bringing in out of town talent but keep on going as you wouldn't see the likes of James Holden, Mazi, Habersham, Paul Louth, Opencloud, Son Of The Electric Ghost, Lostep, etc in this town if not for individuals like myself and a few others.

I try to offset my losses from the above with my regular more 'commercial' house club residencies. With all the upscale clubs in our area being focused toward the Top 40 market as well as no dance music support on radio stations outside of trance and stuff like Benny Benassi's Satisfaction it makes for quite a difficult time to pull in people for a minimal or IDM show. In our town people are thrilled if 200 people show up for a more 'underground' name. To scale, our town's largest shows on a good night (I'm talking Delta Heavy, Mark Farina, Tiesto) draw in between 1,000 to 1,200 people.

I'd agree about flyers in certain aspects, but I do tend to think, at least in our area, that a good indicator of a succesful night will be someone who spent the money and time to distribute flyers to try to get that extra turnout if at all possible.

i totally agree. the market sucks here in detroit and is tough to get people out..for anything at all. any promoter here is happy to break even. we do it for the love of the music, culture, and nothing else. sometimes you do make money, sometimes you don't. all i can say is start off small, and local, and slowly build up your name. you just can't jump into things and throw some huge massive, it just won't happen. you have to earn it like anything else. and it really is for the better too, i'm glad a worked from the ground up. it's a great way to build contacts with lots of local djs, promoters, venue owners, etc. you just can't waltz into a venue or call up TCA and expect to get what you want. just now after 6 years we are at that point... but i wouldn't trade it for the world!

[Jenks]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

we do it for the love of the music, culture, and nothing else. sometimes you do make money, sometimes you don't. all i can say is start off small, and local, and slowly build up your name.

same here in St. Louis. we have a wicked underground techno scene tho, and there's hardly lots of cash going around. Word of mouth spreads tho, and djs come here for less just to play the party. You'd be amazed at the djs i've seen in the last two years in this dirty little murder city. I love the gritty little underbelly this city has, much like detroit.

[hulkhuss]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

^^^^ MOE Murda..............

[jeffrey collins]

Re: What to do promoters pay???

i'd like to bring steve bug to charlotte, but im not sure i could make that happen.

I've heard a couple of his tracks. I'd bet that would be a pretty cool night!