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Q & A
Each month, MusicBizAdvice.com answers your questions about the music industry.
Concert
Promotion Basics Artists and Aspiring Talent Buyers Should Know: Deposit,
Radius clause, Force majuere, Transportation, Settlement, What Happens When
a Show is Canceled, and Why Artists, Agents, and Managers Won’t Work with
Promoters they Don’t Know
Q.
I'm
interested in bringing some concerts to my town of approximately 50,000.
You have mentioned the radius clause several times in other Q&A responses.
What is the typical distance stated in a radius clause?
What provisions are in the performance contract to protect the promoter from
cancelled performances for reasons like no shows, illness, transportation
problems etc?
How does the money flow work? In other words, say an artist's fee is
$30,000, how much of that do you have to pay up front and how much is
settled on the day of the show?
Thanks, [name withheld]
A. I’m
glad you wrote. But before I answer your questions I have to be brutally
honest and say the questions you’re asking indicate you’re not quite ready
to take on promoting concerts on your own, because they indicate that you
may have never seen an AFM performance agreement…something every concert
promoter should be very familiar with.
Before you risk what amounts to half the price of a small home in certain
parts of the US, I strongly suggest working for the competition for a year
or so to learn the basics of performance agreements and what goes into
presenting a successful show. For free as an intern if you have to.
Otherwise, you and the artists you present are in probable danger of losing
a lot of money. (Not to mention your reputation, as well as the
artist’s.)
For all their complaints and mistrust of each other (as is evident in the
phrasing of some of your questions), there’s a certain degree of faith
between a promoter and artist that exists in addition to an ironclad
contract. Some major artists have done shows with certain promoters for over
25 years because along with a clearly worded contract, they know they
can count on each other to get the job done to make a lot of money together.
As an agent or manager, I would not send a client to do a show for a new
promoter I didn’t know. Not because I’d think I was too good to give someone
a chance, but because I couldn’t trust that promoter to make the show run
smoothly and safely…let alone do a show that makes money. If he didn’t know
the basics of performance agreements and AFM regulations, it’d be a pretty
safe bet he also didn’t know the basics of OSHA safety regulations. That
leaves the audience, artist and crew potentially vulnerable…and the artist
and promoter vulnerable to potentially career-ending lawsuits.
Take a year to work for the competition, and you’ll learn things that can
earn you a lifetime of money later. You’ll also build up a rolodex of
contacts that are crucial toward building agents’ and managers’ faith in you
as a promoter so they’ll consider your offers.
Meanwhile, to add to your education,
here are
the answers to your questions about specific contract points and how the
artist gets paid. And
here is an article that explains the AFM Artist Performance Agreement in
detail.
Good luck!
Randi Reed
Editor-in-Chief / Founder
MusicBizAdvice.com
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