If you live in a city or close to a city, you know there is some sort of concert happening on a regular basis. It might be Lady Gaga who hit town or it might be the local symphony orchestra. Either way, it costs something to put it on. We are always trying to build student interest in math so let's look at some practical applications such as the cost of putting on a concert.
So the figures here are based on a musical concert done by a big name group. The cost of the ticket rose from $84.63 in 2017 to $94.31 in 2018. This is up from the $30 to $40 tickets back in the 1990's. Unfortunately, groups are no longer making money by selling their music, they make it on the concert circuit.
Furthermore, concerts need to be more interactive to attract people and make them want to attend. When a promoter sets the price of the ticket, they have to take into account the expected revenue versus the expected costs. Some of the costs include the artist. If the artist is the only one, they get the fee but if it is a band, the band will have to split the fee. Add to that the cost of band's crew who also have to be paid. The promoter might also hire someone to be an opening act for the big name. The opening act warms up the audience and makes the concert last longer.
Then there is the cost of the venue which can range from several thousand dollars for a smaller one to over $50,000 for the big ones. In addition the promoter may have pay for lights, a sound system, staging, and a production crew if the venue does not include those in the rental fee. They might also have to pay for security, parking attendants, and a clean up crew if it is not provided by the venue as part of the rental cost. Depending on the venue and it's location, the promoter might need to purchase special permits or licenses.
The promoter also needs to provide marketing and advertising for the concert. The cost of this depends on the the type of advertising the promoter does. It costs more if they use radio, television, and print ads in addition to social media. The more the concert is advertised, the more tickets they sell and the more the expenses are.
Furthermore, most groups sell merchandise to raise more money. It is said that merchandise accounts for about 6 percent of any bands income. When bands sell merchandise, they build their brand and their followers will buy things to show their pride in being a follower of the band.
The final part of the equation is the price of ticket sales. The price of the ticket includes all of the above and one more thing. The ticket price has to include the cost of using the ticketing platform that the promoter has linked the website to. The particular platform might let the promoter keep the booking fee but charge him an initial set up fee and a monthly charge while others might just charge a per ticket fee or a monthly charge. It depends on the company. The bottom line on ticket sales is that the easier they make it for people to purchase the tickets, the more they will sell.
This article gives some solid numbers on the cost of a month long tour done by the band Pomplamoose back in 2014. They played 24 concerts in 23 cities over a 28 day period and wrote about the experiences. The whole tour cost them almost $148,000 to produce but they only managed to bring in almost $136,000 so they took a loss of $12,000 on that tour.
Furthermore, this article gives the general costs of everything involved in setting up a concert from the basic to medium, to premium costs so students get a better idea of how much each part costs. They can use the material in this to calculate the cost of setting up a concert as if they were a promoter.
Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.
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