Sophie Moser 0:02
Hey, I'm Sophie.
Sophia Barber 0:04
And I'm Sophia.
Sophie Moser 0:05
And this is the That's Showbiz, Baby! podcast.
Sophie Moser 0:08
So for today's episode, we want to kick it off with our music news segment. So I'm gonna get us started. And I have an interesting update on something that I talked about way back in our Spotify episode, which is Spotify's personality tracking technology. So the technology I touched on back in October used like data and the actions of users to determine their mood, preferred types of music, and demographics, all in an attempt to personalize concert- content that the user would enjoy, like mostly ads, but maybe actual, like music and podcast content. So, I said then that that was very creepy. And as if that wasn't creepy enough. Um, Spotify has gone even farther. So now, the company wants to dig even deeper into the mind of the user by using speech recognition to determine their emotional state, gender, age, or accent.
Sophia Barber 0:42
That's so weird.
Sophie Moser 0:42
So we once again to personalize content to the user. So, super interesting. And their new patent, which is entitled "identification of taste attributes from an audio signal" was actually granted on January 12th of this year. So they have it, like they have the patent for this technology. And according to the filing, the new technology includes a method for processing a provided audio signal that includes speech content and background noise. And that will identify playable content based on the processed audio signal content. So yeah, this is just super creepy to me, and seems like a major invasion of privacy. I'm not really sure what the ethics are here, if they'll be like, allowed to, but I mean, it seems like other apps kind of do the same thing. Like I'm pretty sure Instagram listens to me.
Sophia Barber 1:23
Yeah for sure. Do you know, like, from the research is it public, whether they just like listen while you're using the app? Or if there's a feature that you can turn on? And like speak into it? Or what's, what's that?
Sophie Moser 2:01
It pretty much seems like they just listen, like, period.
Sophia Barber 2:05
Oh, I love that.
Sophie Moser 2:24
Yeah, like, I don't think it's anything that you can control. I'm not sure if it's when you use the app, or if it's also when you are not on the app. But either way, they are going to be recording, like your audio, and then also your background noise. So like anything around you at any time, or like, at any time that you're using the app, maybe if that's the case, and I don't know, it just seems like a major invasion of privacy to me and not something that's necessary to market things effectively. And, you know, come up with effective advertising. So I'm not a fan even more so not a fan this time around.
Sophia Barber 3:01
Yeah, I know we're always like, kind of weirded out by these new technologies on here. And you might think they're overreacting. But I think in this case, it's too far. They've gone too far if they actually implement this patent.
Sophie Moser 3:14
Yeah, definitely too far. And like, I'm not even okay with other apps doing it. Like it's not just a Spotify thing. Like, I don't like the fact that other apps do things like this, either.
Sophia Barber 3:24
Yeah, it really is the scariest moment when you get an ad for something you've never googled, and you just like talked about it. Weird stuff. So I guess I'll move on from that to another update on what we talked about during our Christmas episode, which is Bob Dylan selling his entire songwriting catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group. So he did that in December, but there has recently been an update. That original deal was estimated at $300 million, by the way. So now there is a $7.25 million lawsuit against Dylan over the deal. The claim was made by Claudia Levy, the widow of songwriter Jacques Levy on January 20, accusing universal of failing to pay Levy's estate its rightful portion of the proceeds from the catalog sale. So Jacques Levy co-wrote seven songs with Bob Dylan for his album "Desire." And instead of a typical co-writing agreement, where the parties split rights to the song like the copyright, Levy was hired by Dylan in a work for hire agreement. So Dylan kept 100% of the song ownership, but they agreed that Levy was entitled to 35% of any and all income the songs made, either paid by Dylan or a PRO, which if any of you don't know a PRO is a Performance Rights Organization. The two most common ones are BMI and ASCAP. And the gist is that they make sure artists get paid when their song is performed or played in public. So, Claudia Levy is pretty much saying that this $300 million deal counts as income made by the songs and that his estate is entitled to a pro rata share of the deal Dylan made with universal. Dylan's team sent a comment to Billboard calling the suit "a sad attempt to unfairly profit off of the recent catalog sale," and my take is, honestly 7.25 million in the grand scheme of that deal and generally, just probably what Bob Dylan is worth seems pretty insignificant. So it seems like it might be easier, especially if they were like friends, Jacques and Bob, to just like, settle. But there's obviously like a pride aspect. And just setting a precedent, so I guess they are taking it to court. I'm not really totally sure how I feel about it. But we will keep you updated if there's any big news around this case.
Sophie Moser 5:54
That's interesting. It seems like it kind of would count as income made by the song like it seems like-
Sophia Barber 5:59
Yeah.
Sophie Moser 5:59
she kind of does have a legal claim to it. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Sophia Barber 6:05
Yeah. Also when Dylan's team called it, like a sad attempt to unfairly profit, like, he co-wrote those songs. Part of the songs are his creation. It's not like he's just coming out of the woodworks. They had an agreement. So we'll see what the court decides, I guess. But now we are going to kind of segue into the big part of our episode, which is an overview about how to throw a concert on a budget or a DIY concert from our perspective. We're going to talk about our experiences and kind of give some advice and a little bit of a run through. If you want to throw a concert on a DIY level hopefully this is helpful. So we're going to start out with a little bit of an explanation of the two big shows that we have done before the pandemic. So Sophie, you can start us off.
Sophie Moser 6:55
Yeah. So Sophia, and I actually threw our first show together with a group of friends, and we were called TGFC Productions. And this was our first concert experience. We sold out a show and this was last November 9th of, well not last November 9th rip, but November 9th of 2019 and we had an audience of over 70 people. Our show was called TGFC Presents Ashes to Amber and Cordelia and it took place at an upscale venue called Allies Worldwide, which was located in downtown LA. And our show offered USC students this like fun and classy night of art and music. So we hosted two musical artists: the band Ashes to Amber who we've talked to on the podcast before and Cordelia and then two visual artists, Alexia Sambrano, and the earring brand Kikay. So all proceeds from this event went to benefit Road Recovery. And we were able to support and donate to their cause during our production process. And our whole group produced the entire show from start to finish. And we definitely learned tons about what goes into producing a show on a budget, because we started with $0. So, that was our first one.
Sophia Barber 8:07
Yeah. And then the next one, it was spring 2020. From that show, we were kind of asked to come help an event called Sophisticated Women Gala. So we were planning this event, obviously for the spring. And it was canceled due to COVID. But we pretty much had everything fully planned. So it definitely feels like we planned the event. It was going to premiere the student shortfilm titled "Sophisticated Women," we had a beautiful gallery space in downtown Los Angeles booked. And it was going to be a great night with cocktails, music, art, an informational gallery about fashion, and a separate room where the film would be screened on repeat all night. The creative team behind the film was also creating a zine that they were going to sell. And we- our job as producers of the event was to just plan an amazing night surrounding the film's release with art and music, and it was going to be gorgeous. And I'm really sad it had to be canceled. So that's the other big one we did.
Sophie Moser 9:11
Yeah, that's devastating. Like even hearing you talk about it. It just makes me sad that we couldn't experience the actual event.
Sophia Barber 9:18
Yeah. We had big plans, but it's fine, whatever. So this episode is actually going to be a two parter. So stay tuned for next week for more about this. But we are going to just kind of go over the big stuff. And then the more like minute details or the smaller things you wouldn't think about will be next week. So I'm going to start with how to contact artists. They're obviously a very important part of putting on a show or just event generally like most events have some sort of music or performance at them. So we're going to start with how to contact artists, they can be a little bit tricky to talk to and pin down, but we're gonna give you some tips that we have. So generally, it's good to have a pretty solid idea of what your show is going to be before you reach out to artists. You don't have to have everything solidified because you don't want to wait until it's too late to get artists. But having a good idea of the type of venue you want to have it at, the overall vibe, the branding, if there's a charity you want to support, try and have that picked out. Like, especially if you're talking to an artist you don't know and you have to get them to trust you. Having all these details, at least thought out is pretty much a must. So now if you kind of have your idea for your show, it's time to reach out to artists. All of our shows that we've done completely ourselves, as in like not related to campus organizations, have been working with USC artists and friends that we could contact directly. So if you're eyeing an artist with an agent, this advice is not for you, different thing, but you can figure that out. So you're going to want to come up with a list of artists that fit your show, and try and start with the must have artists first. Reaching out is really as simple as a text or a DM. If you don't know them, then that's or sorry. If you know them, then that makes it a lot easier for you, that's great. But if you don't, try and see if you have a mutual friend or acquaintance that can introduce you. And that makes it a little less scary, I'm sure for the artist to receive a message like from a complete stranger, at least there's some sort of connection. In this message, you just want to be really kind and excited. Start out with introducing yourself, then tell them a little bit about the show. And ask them to hop on a call or meet up, obviously don't meet up in COVID, but in other times, like meet up to talk about the show further and see if they'd be interested. Um, we've done it before where we sent a text kind of outlining every detail of the concert and asked directly in that text if they'd be interested. And honestly, in retrospect, that's kind of a mistake, because it makes the artist take a really long time to get back to you because they're thinking about it, and they haven't really met you or they might not have met you on Zoom or in person, so they can't really gauge your energy or level of trust. So we'd honestly recommend the call or meeting, I think it makes things go much quicker. For the artists meetings, my biggest piece of advice is to just be really nice. I mean, hopefully you want, you want to be nice in these meetings. But be nice, it's really a must. Performing and working with people creatively is just an incredibly vulnerable process. And so you really want to make sure that the artists are comfortable, and you give them all the information they need about the show, and that they feel that you know what you're doing, which after these pod episodes, you will so you'll be all set. And also allow them time to ask questions, obviously, and make sure you're available in some way if more questions pop up after your meeting. Also, while I was kind of writing what I was going to say for this, I realized that our like hospitality director vibes are really coming, coming through in this episode. But yeah, just make sure that artists feel comfortable. And we also recommend having a visual with you. Ideally, you would have some sort of pitch deck. But if the details of the show aren't super fleshed out yet, at least have a one sheet with the vital info that you do know, that you can give to the artist. Overall, finding an artist is kind of a juggling ac- act. Artists can be flaky with texting because they're busy. And as I like to say, you know, the creative mind doth not often return a text.
Sophie Moser 9:41
How insightful.
Sophia Barber 12:26
Yeah, but you know, these, this stuff is a pretty intuitive at this level. Just be nice. be professional, be honest. And you should be good. You'll be okay.
Sophie Moser 13:56
Yeah, I definitely second that being prepared is really important. Obviously, they're not going to know the answers. And if they, you know, if they see you kind of like stumbling over your words or not really sure about what the answers to their questions are, then that's probably not a great sign. Like Sophia said, like, you're definitely not going to have every detail worked out but at least be able to kind of anticipate questions, have the big things worked out and just be honest, if you're like, Hey, we haven't figured that out yet.
Sophia Barber 14:22
Yeah.
Sophie Moser 14:25
But I can continue us forward onto another big building block when you're trying to throw a concert on a budget in particular. And this is about how to secure sponsors. So sponsors are extremely helpful when you're throwing a concert. Again, especially if it's on a budget because working with sponsors is mutually beneficial, because you receive money from them that can be crucial to funding the show that you need to cover your expenses. And then you offer them promotion and marketing in return, often to a key audience for their company. So essentially sponsors can give you a much bigger budget to work with at a pretty little cost to your team, it's just a little bit of extra work to accommodate them and promote them. And if you're looking to secure sponsors for a concert or event, here are some tips and some things to keep in mind. So first of all, you should create a professional, clean deck to share with potential sponsors, and then this deck would lay out the benefits that they would receive if they participated. So this should fit on one sheet of paper contain the key details of your event, probably an estimate of what your audience will be, and how many eyes will see your promotion, contact information, and then information about the opportunities for the sponsors to get involved. You want everything to be right there, really easy to understand. And what we've done, and what I would recommend is using a template from a website like Canva, because you can just make something clean, professional, interesting and visually appealing, you definitely want it to be nice to look at too.
Sophie Moser 16:02
And then in terms of outlining the sponsorship opportunities, it can often be really helpful to do so in tiers. So you can kind of set structured sponsorship opportunities with different donation amounts and varying benefits. So obviously, you know, greater benefits will be added with each higher donation amount. You might offer kind of like a bronze, silver and a gold tier. That's pretty basic, you can be creative if you want to title them, and then you can up the benefits for the sponsor. So for our TGFC show, we offered three structured options along these lines. So we had our biggest one was a gold presenting sponsor. So this was a $2,000 donation from the sponsor. And then the benefits that we provided included, their logo being displayed on all marketing assets in the most prominent position, four free tickets to the event, two posts on Instagram devoted solely to featuring the company, three features on our Instagram story, and prominent signage at the event and then a large tablespace if they wanted it for coupons, stickers, merch, giveaways, etc. And then we also had a silver sponsor. And that was an amount of $1,000 given and then bronze sponsor, which was $500. And then you know, respectively, these each had less benefits and less prominence was given to the company. So you definitely want to customize your tiers to your show. So keep in mind how much money you want to raise, and then the benefits that you will be able to offer that sponsors actually want. So setting up tiers like this, it just allows potential sponsors to get a clear and structured idea of what you have to offer. And then what you're looking for too. And it provides some contrast by outlining the different levels of participation. So by offering higher sponsorship options, it kind of makes contributing at the lower levels seem like more of a bargain or a cheaper way to get involved, which can appeal to companies who want to help but not pay a huge amount of money. So we definitely set our tiers a bit high in terms of donation amount, we aimed high just in case companies were willing to pitch in, you know, obviously, we weren't going to say no to the higher donations. But we were definitely prepared to accept lower donations and donation amounts. So then, going off of that, it's important to be flexible and creative. So the tiers are really helpful in terms of starting the conversation and providing structure and information. And then allowing companies to get involved with minimal effort on their part. So if they don't want to change the agreement at all, it's right there in front of them to use. However, not all companies are going to want to adhere specifically to the tiers you've laid out. So don't let them be the final word. Different companies have different needs. And they might prefer different forms of marketing, or different donation amounts. So make sure that you communicate that you can be flexible with the companies you're talking to, work with them and their desires however you can, obviously be realistic about what you are actually able to do. But definitely be creative, adapt to what they want. And then don't say no to what they're offering you. So whether companies are offering much lower donation amounts or you know, some might not be able to donate money at all, but will provide like free goods of some sort. Like don't say no to that. Anything helps, especially when you're throwing a concert on a small budget. And I can give you a few examples from our experience. So first, we partnered with Yerba Mate in our TGFC show, which was really cool. They wanted to donate an amount of money that was not, you know, specific to a tear in our deck. And then they also did not want to be featured in any marketing. They didn't want their logo used on anything. But they did want their drinks to be available at the event and us to take pictures of kids enjoying them to send back to them. So that was kind of the agreement that we worked out with them. And obviously it was a little different than what we outlined. But it worked great for both of us. And then another example is we also worked with Nail Garden and they could not contribute financially but they did offer two coupons for free manicures. So we were able to use these coupons and promotions of our own to incentivize people to buy tickets, and then donate to our charity. So definitely be prepared to be flexible, and adapt the benefits and the promotions that you offer to what companies request. And then definitely, you know, accept lower donations or even non-monetary donations of goods and services.
Sophia Barber 20:23
Yeah, definitely.
Sophie Moser 20:24
And then, oh wait go ahead.
Sophia Barber 20:25
I was just gonna say any little bit helps, and they really add up. And also it can just even if they donate, like goods. not money, it can help make the experience more enjoyable. Like, we were able to have a quote unquote bar at our event with Yerba Mate, and that wouldn't have been possible necessarily without their sponsorship. So it kind of also just adds to the ambiance if you have more to offer, even if they don't give you money. So I agree.
Sophie Moser 20:52
Absolutely. So once you've kind of laid that out, and you're prepared, think about what companies you want to get in contact with. So don't limit your options, a lot of companies aren't going to be interested. So make a long list of companies to reach out to, you don't want to count on any, you know, like, pick a few and be like, Oh, these guys are totally going to support because you don't know what companies are going to be able to do. And then do really focus on companies that are trying to reach the audience that you're targeting for your event. So, for many of us, that's USC students, you know, like, we're all students, we're throwing events for students. And generally, we're gonna look for companies that are targeting USC students, because it's going to be valuable for them to get their name in front of students more than some big corporation. So I would definitely recommend talking to local companies, if you're not a USC student, talk to local companies to your area, or to companies that target you know, for us, its students or for who- whomever your audience will consist of, it's definitely important to identify your target audience and the people who are going to buy tickets to your show, in order to determine what companies are actually going to be interested in participating in your event. And then once you've made a list of companies that are an appropriate match for your location, your audience, even the vibe of your show, or the preferences of you and your artists, then reach out. And my last little bit of advice is definitely be prepared for awkward conversations and rejections.
Sophia Barber 22:21
Yeah.
Sophie Moser 22:23
Definitely, when possible, talk to your potential sponsors in person, walk into their stores. And you can just ask, ask to share your sponsorship desk or ask for the right person to talk to. And if that's not an option, which you know, might not be now in COVID, try to reach people over the phone. Email is definitely an option. But I think that more face to face or personal, like interactions are best. It make, kind of like what Sophia was talking about earlier, it just builds that level of trust and helps people kind of understand who you are and what you're asking for. But yeah, it can definitely be awkward to just set up cold calls. And you know, you're literally going in and just asking for money. But don't let that stop you. Because the worst that can happen is that they're just gonna say no, and you both move on your way. You know, like, that's all that can really happen.
Sophia Barber 23:15
Yeah.
Sophie Moser 23:15
So be prepared for that. Be prepared for rejections. But at the end of the day, even one sponsor or two sponsors can make a huge difference. Um, so even if most companies reject you, that's okay.
Sophia Barber 23:29
Yeah.
Sophie Moser 23:29
And then be sure to follow up on phone calls, meetings, emails, just follow up with people in a respective- in a respectful way, you know, don't like bother them. But until they say, no, I think you can reach out, you know, with a few weeks in between times, like reaching out, just to keep the conversation going. And yeah, start early, because it will take time for companies to think through and for you to find a willing sponsor.
Sophia Barber 23:57
Yeah, it takes a long time. It's also truly so scary. Like there was one day where we were going to every single business in the USC Village being like, Hi, can we have money, like not actually like that, obviously. But that's how it felt. And it is scary, but truly, like, it's scary for everyone. So if you are scared to do it, just go for it, they won't judge you. They'll probably just be like, Oh, that's so cool that you're doing that but we can't, we don't have money at this time. They're not gonna hate you. Or like, think it's weird, you'll be able to go back to the business again, if they say no, it's really not as big of a deal as it seems. So don't worry, you can do it. Now I'm going to move on to how to book a venue. This one is actually a pretty fun step of the process, but also pretty scary because you know, without a venue, what are you going to do? So there's a few ways you can go about it. And it ranges from really inexpensive to very expensive, depending on personal factors, your budget, what you're looking for etc. So kind of on the cheaper end, a route you can take is doing it in a backyard or someone's house, if you have a backyard or your friend does, those can honestly be really fun shows, and are pretty cheap to put on, you know, you would just need to provide a sound system, decorations, lighting, all that stuff, because you might not have those. So that's something to keep in mind. You also need to make sure to let the neighbors know that there's going to be noise, follow the noise ordinances in your neighborhood. So definitely no late night shows in the backyard setting. I think while you can save money, there definitely are a lot of obstacles to having a residential show just because of noise complaints. And perhaps the police coming. I've been to quite a few house shows where our campus security or the police showed up to shut it down because it was too loud. So that is something to keep in mind. Another route is to try and have your show at a designated music venue. So somewhere with a stage and a soundboard and all the equipment. So with this, you would want to contact the booking person at the venue and kind of work from there on their requirements, their pricing, etc. This is easy in the way that you don't have to worry about creating like a bar or a stage or the sound system. So it definitely is maybe less work. But it also limits your creative freedom to what the venue wants. So even maybe, in your advertising, you'd have to run it by the venue because they don't want you to advertise their venue in a way that looks bad, in their opinion, stuff like that. So it definitely limits your personal control of the situation. But it can be a nice way to go. And then there's what Sophie and I love to do, which is way more work than all of the other routes. And it's to find a general event space that are for rent by the hour or by the day. Our favorite website that lets us do this is peerspace.com, p-e-e-r-s-p-a-c-e, peerspace. Not sponsored, but I wish so if you have a contact let us know. With that you can kind of type in what you're doing. They have event spaces, from photoshoots, to parties, to whatever, there's a lot of different variation in there. I'm pretty sure it's only available in a few cities, like big cities, so watch out for that. But it's like a really great wa- way to find a venue. And then another way to kind of find a venue like this besides peerspace or a different website is to pay attention to what other people either at your school or in your community are doing and where they are having their events and maybe go to a couple like outside of COVID if you can, and you can find some places that you like this way as well. But generally, for my tips, I'm going to focus on using these platforms like peerspace. So you want to reach out to the owner, once you find an event space that works and really ask them, kind of introduce yourself, say hello, ask them any questions you have that might be a deal breaker. And then once you have the answers, if they fit what you're looking for, you want to schedule a tour with them. Please don't book a venue without seeing it in person first. And if someone is hesitant to let you tour the space, that's not a good sign. So always scout the venues in advance. And if they're being kind of sketchy about letting you see it, I would go a different direction personally.
Sophia Barber 28:33
Things to look for in a venue when you're doing that tour: outlets. This is maybe something you wouldn't think about. But where are you going to plug stuff in? Where are you getting power from? Do they have enough outlet capabilities to meet your needs, because that is a big one. That really there's no workaround or a very difficult workaround. Another thing is security. Some places will have a security guard that you'll have to hire, some people won't. But you want to like just see the security of the location in general and talk about having a guard. Especially if you think people are going to be waiting on the street to get in. If you plan on forming a line make sure there's space on the sidewalk, and that it's relatively safe to form a line on that sidewalk, things like that. Also, obviously look at capacity, whether there's green room space, just really make sure that it has the space to do everything that you're looking for. Also, make sure you don't need to secure additional permits. Or if you do what permits you would need to secure with maybe even your city to do the type of event that you want there. A lot of places will already have event permits like permanently, but double check. And then you also want to talk about what the insurance is like if they have insurance that will cover your event or if you need to provide your own. That can be you know, range in like 100 bucks to a couple 100 bucks range. So it's like a pretty significant cost. So always ask about that. And you can also ask the venue owner what other people have done with the space to kind of get some ideas of how you're going to lay out the show and things like that. We talked to the owner of one of our venues a lot about lighting and how other people lit it. And we ended up with some really cool lighting because of asking her about it. And this is also random, but I thought of this, pro tip concrete and tile floors and drum kits aren't best friends. So if you're going to have a drummer, make sure to, you know, peep the floor, make sure it'll work or get a rug, which we had to do thank you IKEA for the cheap rug. Also, while you're there, take lots of pictures and videos and also lots of notes if they're answering your questions. It would be ideal to go with at least one other person so you could kind of have one person take photos and videos and one person take notes. But if you a have to go alone, I'm sure you can figure it out. And then just general advice for going on location scouts, especially if you're young, dress nicely. Be you know, professional, be polite and kind, be on time and then be honest with them about your intentions for the space. Because if they find out that you're lying, that can lead to big problems. And they really generally want to work with you and want you to rent the space. So you know, you can just be polite and honest and you should be able to work something out. And then post tour if you think that this venue is the one, maybe you can try and negotiate them down a little bit. Especially if you're having an event on maybe a weekday or kind of an off day, or you're booking it for a lot of hours, maybe they'll give you a bulk price, something like that. Then once you get your price that you like, you know, book it for the number of hours or days you're going to need. And then if you're not sure, like how many hours you're going to need,come back next week for part two, where we will talk more about day of show logistics. So yeah, that's kind of the basics of the venue, Sophie, anything to add?
Sophie Moser 32:01
I definitely agree with what you're saying about reaching out and trying to negotiate the price down, I think something that's been helpful for us is that peerspace is a really great website to use, or, you know, if you find a location listed on a website, that can be really great for identifying spaces. But honestly, it can be more helpful, like a lot of people are willing to kind of conduct the business, like actually renting the space, not through the platform. Because you know, platforms like that, take a fee. And, and generally, you know, that's not great for you. And it's also not great for the person renting out the space. So people are normally pretty willing to work with you on the side and just send you a personal invoice. And I think that's been really helpful for us in terms of negotiating the price down and avoiding some of the fees. And just kind of conducting business on the side. That's my my one statement of agreement with what you were saying. And then to finish us off, I'm going to talk about ticketing and how to price your tickets. This is kind of one of the last big building blocks of making sure you're all ready to go for your show. And it's huge in having a successful concert. And again, it's a you know, key way to raise money to fund your show and cover your expenses when you're working on a budget. And I have a few big things to point out to keep in mind when it comes to ticketing. And the first thing is finding the right platform to sell your tickets on. There are a lot of ticketing options out there. And a lot of them are kind of structured websites like Eventbrite. And then you know people will even go the more organic approach like having people pay through Venmo. And there are definitely pros and cons to both routes. Websites: these like middleman websites generally take a fee out of your ticket sales, which can hurt a little bit. But they do also offer a lot of structure and organization, you receive a guest list of people who have purchased tickets, so you can be checking people in, keeping that organized. They also offer other insights and data normally, it also tracks the money you're making as you go, keeps it all together and allows you to deposit it into one place when your event is finished, which just helps keep the money organized and separate. It is also more professional, clean and accessible. Not everyone has payment apps like Venmo. So that can kind of be a roadblock for some. However, on the flip side, the biggest perk to using direct payment website or direct payment like apps or methods like Venmo is that you do keep all of the money from ticket sales which can be you know, a huge factor. You don't have to pay a fee or anything. But it is definitely less organized. You have to personally keep track of the guest list and who has paid. You also have to make sure the Venmo payments don't get mixed up with your personal transactions and that the money can be kept organized, and just kept track of in general and then put towards the right expenses. So I think it's definitely a lot more complicated to use something like Venmo. And a lot of times when you're putting on a show with a group of friends, like the money, stuff can be a little bit tricky, a little bit touchy, sometimes you have to put in money upfront, you really don't want, you know, to have a situation where money is getting mixed up. So sometimes that can be a big enough factor to make using middleman services like Eventbrite or other ticket platforms, a better choice, despite their fees. So that's what I would personally recommend. However, Venmo can definitely be an appropriate choice in some situations. So just think through kind of the you know, dynamic of who you're putting the show on with, if you can have a separate Venmo account, if you're using using someone's personal account, stuff like that are good things to think through.
Sophia Barber 35:53
Yeah, it also depends, if you're selling tickets in advance, or just buying at the door, like I wouldn't sell tickets in advance to a show at a house, you know, but maybe at somewhere, like an event space so you don't go over capacity. So that's another thing to think about. If it's all in one night, like a few hours of Venmo, then it's definitely less likely that money will get mixed up. So that is also something to think about.
Sophie Moser 36:19
Yeah, I definitely agree that websites are probably the better choice when you're selling tickets in advance, especially when you have an event capacity, that was something in our TGFC show we had to be very mindful of, um, because we were gonna have to pay a lot more if we ended up going over the capacity. But yeah, Venmo can be a really good option if you're doing something kind of like the more residential shows Sophia was talking about, if you're just collecting ticket, like ticket sales at the door. Um, and then building off of that you need to set the right price for tickets. So this is going to be pretty subjective, because you need to think through your target audience and their willingness to pay and then also what type of event you're throwing. And you really don't want to sell yourself short and make your tickets too cheap, and then not make enough money from ticketing to be able to cover your expenses. But you also don't want to price tickets too high so that people are going to not buy them and not come. So important factors to consider when setting your ticket price definitely include this like analyzing your audience's willing willingness to pay, which you know, with college students probably isn't going to be super high. And then also consider you know, maybe your budget and the expenses you need to cover, consider how much money you're looking to make from ticketing, and you know, how many people you think are going to come. And then also any fees from ticketing platforms that you kind of need to accommodate for. So it seems to me like the $5 to $7 range can definitely be a sweet spot for college events. But again, it depends on what you're offering, a backyard show is going to be a lot less expensive than you know a gala, like what we were producing that has a lot more things to offer and a lot more expenses going into it. So definitely just consider the specifics of your show, and strategize that way. And then the last thing is kind of like the sponsorship tiers, you can also offer ticketing tiers. So this is a pretty common sales technique. So by offering, you know, a higher ticket price and a lower ticket price, it often makes the lower ticket price look like a bigger steal, and more appealing and more people tend to buy a ticket in general when they see that they, you know, can get this cheaper ticket. So if you do want to offer ticketing tiers, you definitely need to think through what is going to differentiate your tiers, and then what platform can support having multiple pricing options. So generally a higher ticket tier would be you know, your VIP experience. And it could include a meet and greet with an artist and exclusive performance, merchandise or some type of material good, or you know, something like that it can be specific to your show. And sometimes it can be a little too complicated to work with this and set up the multiple tiers and some websites won't support it. Some will only let you sell one type of ticket for an event or it will take more money if you're selling multiple ticket prices. But if you think you can work with the two tiers and you want to do that and you have the means to make you know unique perks for the higher ticket price, then it can definitely be a good strategy to increase ticket buying. So those are kind of our big tips, our big categories, you know the hugest building blocks in producing a show. And like Sophia said, this is going to be a two part episode and we're going to carry on next week with some more like smaller details and some things you might not think about. And we definitely want to answer any specific questions that you guys have. So please, dm us or just reach out to us somehow, give us you know, let us know if you have any questions you want us to answer. Our Instagram is @sophia.productions so please reach out And we wi- we will do our best to answer any questions that you might have in our next episode.
Sophia Barber 40:06
Thank you all for listening. You can find us on Instagram at sophia.production and please go rate, download, and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai