Folks in Adelaide, Perth, New Zealand - A Quick Question For You
Folks in Adelaide, Perth, New Zealand and all the other places sometimes skipped by tours in this part of the world - a quick question for you.
Over the past 12 years I've always tried my best to cover as many cities as possible for the artists we promote. But over the last couple years, the costs of touring have gone up so much that I've been forced to book east coast only tours for a few acts. Whilst I'm happy about still being able to bring these cool artists around Australia, I'm not happy about how the economics have worked out. The reason I do this thing is because I love music and getting to share great musical experiences with people.
Obviously it depends on the artist and audience involved, but I've seen Canberra and Newcastle shows routinely sell more tickets than Perth & Adelaide. And P&A ticket sales tend to move much more slowly than other cities, which only adds to the stress for the promoter and the artist.
Many acts are not big enough to sell out a 500-1000 cap room, so for the acts we love who might draw 200-300 in Sydney/Melbourne, that usually translates to 100-150 payers in Perth/Adelaide. Whilst we're lucky that some larger venues will let us have a mid-week night with those numbers in order to present a cool show for people, it also means that it's a big risk. Even just 50 people less than expected could mean a gigantic loss.
The current situation means that in order for these kind of tours to make it to Perth or Adelaide without losing loads of money, if the ticket price is $60-70 on the east coast, the ticket prices for Perth/Adelaide would have to be $150 or more - and that presumes that all 100-150 people would actually show up at that price.
In the past I've just presumed this is too high and that people wouldn't be interested. But since I'm the kind of person who has flown around the world more than once to see my favourite acts, I appreciate that it's still cheaper than the alternative (flights, accomm, time off work to go to another city). So I thought I would check in.
If you're in these cities, would you still want to go see a show at the Rosemount, Magnet House, The Gov, Lion Arts or Jive for $150? Or would you rather pass on seeing that artist / go to another bigger show on the east coast?
No judgement here, just genuinely interested in people's thoughts.
Important to note that sometimes the 'selected cities' 'national tour' is dictated by an artist's availability, or venue availability, rather than by the economics of it.
There are other ideas, like offering a minimum two ticket purchase at the same ticket price as other cities, so that people can bring a friend for the same price. Or making the sales more transparent like a crowd-funding campaign where people can see how far off the show is from being able to happen in their city. However it's also important to be sensitive to the feeling and wellbeing of the artists themselves, who may not wish to be presented or marketed in this way, nor make it seem like they're holding fans to ransom.
The other idea - how about the promoter doesn't take a cut / the promoter does a better job making this band bigger etc. Well yes, I do all that already. I'm the fan who pays the most for my ticket, because if the tour was a $5,000 loss and I was at 2 shows, I just paid $2,500 for the privilege each time. Some artists are doing it for their livelihood and some are in it for the love, but at a certain point we all have to pay for our own lives and can't necessarily wear repeated losses.
Anyway, until math rock / prog / post rock is the new pop again, would love to hear everyone's thoughts (you can shoot me an email - my details are here).
PS I love these cities and I don't like the feeling that people continually feel like they get dumped on for living there, so please don't see this post as another one in a long list of complaints - just a genuine attempt to try to make it better and get more shows happening in more places.
