Saturday, October 26, 2013

SHOULD I BUY THESE TICKETS TO DO THIS SHOWCASE?

By Eric L. Mims J.d.


If you are a rapper or a singer, by now I'm sure that you have ran across the opportunity to do a showcase at some big venue such in your area. The only catch was that you had to buy a certain amount of tickets up front (usually 200) for about a dollar each. The promoter's sales pitch is that if you purchase the tickets at 1.00 each, you can then turn around and sell them to your fans for any price you want and keep the difference as a profit for you or your band.

If you decide to go ahead with the purchasing the tickets, this is usually how it plays out for beginning artist;

The promoter usually will sell you around 200 tickets for 1.00 each, then tell you that you can resell the tickets for 3.00 to 5.00 dollars each to your fans and make your money back plus make a profit.

So you end up with 200 tickets to sale and two or three weeks to sell them. This is when you find out whether you really have fans or not.

So, the bottom line is that you're in the red 170.00, you most likely will not get any new fans, but you will get the experience of performing in front of a semi-hostile crowd. If you need experience performing, there are many venues that will let you perform for free, but there will probably not be too many people in the crowd.

The only time that I would suggest buying tickets to do shows is when the showcase has a headliner. By that I mean that a major act is going to perform at the venue and you are buying and selling tickets so that you can open up for that act.

This means two things. One, it is not likely that you will gain any new fans because these people are loyal to who they came to support, and two, once the artist that they came to see performs, these people are going to leave right along with that artist. So, if you perform near the end of the roster, the audience may be very very small.

Just make sure that you are opening up for an artist in the same genre as your music is in.

However, there is a similar type of opportunity that I think would be more beneficial to your "buzz". You still have to sell tickets or pay out of your pocket, but this time you will be "opening up" for a major artist.

Basically, when you hear that a major artist is coming to your town to perform or do a show (preferably the same genre as you), find out who the promoter is and you will find that most of them offer the same opportunities to perform or to sell tickets to perform.

So basically, showcases with no major headliner.....NO, unless you need the practice performing in front of hostile audiences. Showcases with major headliners in your genre.....YES, but make sure you are show ready..for real!

I'm Out!




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