Concert promoters put ‘bums on seats’ – sell tickets for a concert featuring a particular artist. The concerts range from small club shows (50 – 1000 – capacity venues) to massive stadium concerts (50,000 -capacity and up). For smaller venues with under 300 capacity, the promoter is often also the venue owner or an in-house buyer known as a ‘booker’. These promoters work directly with local artists and booking agents representing lesser-known bands.
At the other end of the scale, there are the full-scale entertainment companies that organise and promote concert tours, music festivals, touring entertainment shows, and hybrid sports/music events. A few companies dominate this field, and any article about concert promoters must mention Live Nation (LM) and AEG Presents (AEG). These two companies dominate the global concert promotion landscape.
Both LM and AEG have the financial resources and industry connections to secure major artists and venues, but independent promoters still play a crucial role, especially in local or niche markets. Their job requires a deep understanding of both the music industry and the logistics of event planning, as well as strong relationships with artists, managers, booking agents, and venue operators.
The Roles of the Promoter in Live Performance
A concert promoter’s primary role is to create a successful and profitable event. This involves selecting the right artists, venues, and timing to maximize ticket sales. Promoters are responsible for negotiating contracts with artists, which typically include a payment structure based on a share of revenue from ticket sales (also called a ‘door deals’ or ‘ticket split’), or a flat fee for the performance (called the ‘guarantee’). Concert promoters also handle marketing and advertising to attract an audience, which can involve traditional media, social media campaigns, and other promotional activities. Ultimately, the goal of a promoter is to ensure a full house to generate revenue.
Concert promotion at any level involves several key responsibilities:
- Booking Artists: Promoters work closely with booking agents to secure artists for their events. This process involves negotiating fees, availability, and other terms, such as travel arrangements and accommodation.
- Venue Selection: Once an artist is confirmed, the promoter must secure an appropriate venue. The choice of venue depends on factors such as the artist’s popularity, expected audience size, and logistical requirements like sound systems and stage setups. There is a shortage of suitable venues of all capacities in major cites. Redevelopment and increasing costs have caused venues of all sizes to close since the pandemic.
- Marketing and Promotion: A significant part of a promoter’s job is marketing the event to ensure ticket sales. This includes everything from designing posters and social media campaigns to secure media coverage and radio play. A common, though unofficial, rule of thumb is that promoters should spend one-third of the ticket price on marketing and advertising.
- Financial Management: Promoters manage the event’s budget. This includes paying artists’ fees, covering venue costs, marketing expenses, and ensuring that all legal requirements (such as permits) are met.
Identifying Concert Opportunities for Artists
The concert promoters business is to stage concerts for artists that sell a lot of tickets. The promoters ‘product’ is music artists, and the promoter needs to find lots of them to sustain a concert promotion business. Here are the key activities involved in identifying concert opportunities for music artists.
- Building Relationships with Booking Agents and Managers.
Concert promoters work closely with booking agents and artist managers to secure talent for their events. Booking agents represent artists and arrange live performances, while managers oversee the artist’s career. Promoters maintain strong relationships with these professionals to stay informed about which artists are available for booking and which might be a good fit for their event or venue. - Monitoring Emerging Talent. Promoters monitor emerging artists by attending smaller gigs, festivals, and showcases where new talent is introduced. The major showcase event is SXSW which takes place in Austin, TX each year. Promoters also rely on industry connections to get recommendations for up-and-coming artists.
- Using Data and Analytics. Promoters use tools like Spotify analytics, YouTube views, and social media engagement, to gauge an artist’s popularity in specific regions or cities. Indeed, concert promotion now features stars of the social media platforms. Some of these social media stars can sell out 1000-5000-capacity venues. This revenue potential draw, alongside low production costs for the promoters, means ‘YouTubers’ and TikTok stars a good income stream for some promoters.
Analysing streaming numbers and fan engagement also helps promoters to identify where established artists have a strong following and where there might be a demand for a live performance. - Attending Industry Events. Concert promoters frequently attend music industry conferences, festivals, and other events where they can network with booking agents, managers, and even artists themselves. These events provide opportunities to discover new talent and negotiate future bookings. The two major events are Pollstar Live in the USA, and ILMC for the UK/European live music business.
- Negotiating Deals. Once a promoter identifies an artist they want to book, they enter negotiations with the artist’s booking agent or manager. This process involves discussing fees, availability, travel arrangements, technical requirements, and other logistical details necessary to secure the artist for a performance.
Deciding on a Ticket Price
Concert promoters decide on ticket pricing by considering several factors. The price needs to balance being affordable enough to attract attendees while still covering all costs associated with the event—and ideally generating profit. Promoters consider these factors:
- Artist Popularity: The more popular an artist, the higher the ticket price might be. However, for emerging artists who might appeal to a younger audience, the pricing needs to be attractive to the purchasers, often parents.
- History: If an artist has a history of sold-out shows and successful tours, they can command higher ticket prices. Conversely, emerging artists with little touring history require a different pricing strategy.
- Venue: The choice and reputation of the venue affect ticket prices. Venues with good accessibility and reputation can justify higher prices, whereas those with poor reputation or accessibility issues might necessitate lower prices.
- Competition: The presence of other events or concerts can influence pricing strategies.
- Promoter’s Costs: All associated costs must be covered, influencing the final ticket price.
Ticket prices are also dynamically adjusted, fluctuating based on demand, similar to airline or hotel pricing models. This can allow for maximising revenue while responding to market demand. While making economic sense, dynamic ticketing has caused fans to be angry in recent years, even causing the government of the UK to launch an enquiry into the activity.
The Financial Risk for Concert Promoters
One of the most significant challenges concert promoters face is managing financial risk. Live events involve substantial upfront costs with no guarantee of success. Key financial risks include:
- Artist Fees: Artist deals involving ‘guarantees’ demand payment, regardless of how many tickets are sold. If ticket sales fall short of expectations but the artist’s fee remains fixed, this can lead to significant losses for promoters. Deals also require the promoter to pay a deposit, usually 50% of the guarantee. Promoters usually pay this deposit when they exchange contracts, weeks or months before the concert takes place.
- Venue Costs: Securing venues require non-refundable deposits or full payment upfront. If an event gets cancelled or under performs at the box office, these costs still need to be covered.
- Marketing Costs: Spending money on advertising across various platforms, like social media and radio, is essential for successful marketing. While the marketing costs per concert are significant, the real issue is the constant drain on promoters’ bank accounts, which magnifies other financial risks. A national promoter handles promotional campaigns for around fifty concerts every week. The cumulative marketing costs are therefore going to be high.
- Production Costs: Staging concerts involves expenses related to sound equipment rental/installation fees; lighting setups; hiring technical crews; transportation costs; catering services; insurance coverage; etc.—all adding up quickly before any revenue has been generated from ticket sales.
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So, that my brief take on the the work of the concert promoter. You might also want to watch my video over on YouTube : What Does a Concert Promoter Do?
There is also my book on the live music business, imaginatively called ‘The Live Music Business‘.