Mbu 1110 fall 2019 touring and merch

5. • Image – the tour needs to match up with the
image of the artist (or artists on a package).
• Acts should at least be in the same genre*
• Venues should put artists in best light
- A full small room is way better than an empty arena.
- Should be familiar and comfortable to your audience
• Michael Buble could play a biker bar, but…
• * always exceptions by crossover acts; basically want to target your core
audience; want tour to increase exposure.
Agent Concerns include:

6. • Agents are also responsible for collecting deposits.
• Deposit is typically 50% of the guarantee paid in
advance (at least 30 days) of the show.
• Sort of an insurance policy that artist won’t get
completely stiffed by an unscrupulous or inexperienced
promoter.
• If a promoter is iffy with the deposit, they will be iffy
with the rest of the money, too.
• Should seriously consider cancelling that date and
taking another gig (or getting 100% up front).
• Deposits are held by the agent and paid after the show
is performed (minus their commission).
Agents

11. 1.Ticket promotion and sales
2.Organizing merchandising
3.Sponsorship deals
4.Stage setup
5.Engage and supervise some event staff
6.Financial accounting
7.Event safety
A Promoter’s Big To-Do List

14. • New artists will almost always lose money
touring in the beginning.
• Conditions stink: bad dressing rooms, stale
food, playing to half-empty halls waiting for
the headliner – and all for very little or no
money.
• Choice: play very small venues on your own or
be an opening act for an established artist on
a big tour.
New Artists and Touring

15. • A recent development in the U.S. is for opening
acts to buy their way into an opening slot on a
tour by paying money to the headliner.
• Rationalized by the amount of exposure that the
act will get by playing in front of the artist is
worth the cost (or worth it for the label, anyway).
• *opener can pay for the slot and still play to a
mostly empty house waiting for the headliner.
New Artists and Touring

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Merchandising, Merchandising, Merchandising…
Merchandising is selling products with your “name,
image and likeness” on it. Two basic kinds in the
music industry - Tour merch and Retail merch.
Tour merch is the biggest money maker for artists.
Retail merch doesn’t create the “buzz” and “sales
frenzy” that a band or artist on tour can generate.
#1 TOUR MERCH
• Licensing the artist name, image and likeness: A
merchandiser exclusively licenses these rights from
the artist and then turns around to manufacture
and sell the merch at the artist’s concerts. The artist
is compensated with a royalty percentage of merch
sales.
• Artist payment: Generally keeps 30% to 40% of the
gross sales. But royalty escalations should be built in
based on sales numbers (either per night or across
the entire tour).

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Merchandising, Merchandising, Merchandising…
• Advances: Unlike record deal and publishing advances - most merchandising
advances are “returnable” and some include interest. Watch out! Under
advance deals, the merchandiser will require the artist to perform for a
minimum number of people, with a minimum number of shows/dates.
• Advance repayments: Triggered by not meeting the performance minimum or
failing to perform under the agreement. A compromise is the merchandiser will
pro-rate this based on how many people you did perform for. Make sure you
never have to pay back any more than your unrecouped balance - the merch
co. shouldn’t get it’s money back twice.
• Foreign payments: World excluding U.S. & Canada is generally about 80% of
the U.S./Canada rate.
• Term: Usually one album cycle or until the advanced is recouped - whichever is
longer. Artist should have the right to repay the advance and terminate during
“extensions” for nonrecoupment.

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Merchandising, Merchandising, Merchandising…
• Performance minimum: Merch co.’s measure sales by “per-head sales”.
10,000 in attendance and $30,000 in merch revenue - is $3 “per head”.
•Paid attendees are the only “heads” that count.
•Adjustments are made for stadium shows, festivals and foreign
performances.
•Stadium/Festivals have less per-head sales.
•Foreign adjustments are made comparatively with your domestic sales
numbers.
• Creative Control: The artist should have approval rights over all merchandise
produced - quality and artwork. Photos, unique artwork/fonts, etc may
require prior permission before use. Check!
• Sell-Off Rights: Usually a six-month period at the end or directly after the end
of the deal - where a merchandiser liquidates the remaining merch on hand.
No new manufactured products here.

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Merchandising, Merchandising, Merchandising…
• #2 Retail MERCH
• Retail merch co.’s act as a manufacture, distributor and a middle-man between the
artist and other retail merch co.’s. The primary retail merch co. pretty much only
handles apparel - while they sublicense out smaller rights to other “ninche” merch
co.’s.
•Certain companies specialize in specific types of merch. For example, posters and
stickers.
• Fees: The retail merch co. generally will take 15% - 25%.
• Sell out???: Passman mentions that these license deals are so little money and the
merch is often “cheesy” - so some artists don’t do these deals at all.
• Artist payment:
•15% - 25% of wholesale for top-line retailers.
•75% of Midlevel (JC Penney)
•50% of mass-marketers (Wal-Mart, Target)
•25% of retail for mail-orders.