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Episode 11 – Free Gigs and Practicing
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Has anyone every booked to do a free event and then abused your generosity?
Just wanted to say thank again Paul for answering a second question from me, ill have to record some more 🙂
Very welcome 🙂 I hope that the information is useful to you?
I’m a little confused with your sliding scale. In particular, the travel expense reduction.
Let’s say my full price for a show is typically $1000 USD. This does not include travel, lodging, meals, etc.
I offer to reduce this by 20% to $800 if they pay my travel expenses, which I would otherwise charge them additionally for? Let’s say my actual travel expenses are $200. So instead of charging them $1200, I only charge them $800 if they pay the $200 expense, bringing the number right back to $1000.
Are you basically offering to just NOT charge them travel expenses in exchange for PAYING the travel expenses?
Forgive me if I seem a bit thick here, but it just sounds like a fancy way of sounding like you’re giving away something when in fact you aren’t giving away anything at all.
Hi Curtis,
This varies in practicality and I’d love to address your excellent points to clarify some of these things.
Firstly, for regular paying gigs, yes you would charge travel/accommodation etc. as additional items. But this sliding scale is for companies who are expecting to get your entire show for free and at an extremely limited budget. I don’t advocate using this as a regular business model, just for the exceptions or when looking for promotional work.
Secondly, when using the scale the main goal is (due to the points mentioned above) to gather respect for providing a massively reduced price (or free) performance. The full fee is unlikely to have ever been paid in these instances, and in some cases it is not uncommon for the performer to be asked to get to the venue ‘under their own steam’. As you point out, the difference is that the client pays these travel expenses, and that is what it was designed for, to make sure they are taken care of by the client and not expected to be paid by the performer.
Finally, the process of offsetting the travel cost helps to build a sort of ‘yes set’ where the client gets on board with the process. The travel costs, per diems and photographs seem very easy to achieve and that is why they appear first on the list, to help build momentum to the bigger items such as event promotion and even having a large charity provide ‘link juice’ for your website.
I hope this makes a little more sense now? If not let me know and I will do my best to try and answer your questions. Thanks for getting involved in the discussion here 🙂
Yes, it does make sense. I realize this isn’t something that is done with regards to booking “regular” gigs (corporate, private, or otherwise) and is geared specifically at non-profits, charities, and organizations who are requesting a free gig or at least an entertainer who will work within a very limited budget.
Perhaps it is due to the region where I live (Midwestern United States), but for some reason I have found it easier for me to book gigs overall by never itemizing my costs to the client. I.e. I quote my fees with travel, meals, lodging, etc., always included. The moment I tell them that the fees are $X, and then they find out that a few hundred dollars more are added for the other costs, it always seems to be an issue. I also like to make my own lodging and other arrangements whenever possible. Of course, I’m speaking with regards to “regular” gigs here, and not charity gigs and such like. I suppose I’m mentioning this to say that since it’s not my usual MO, that this approach in closing a good deal with such organizations is something that has eluded me because I just don’t think this way.
I do a good amount of charity gigs, though I don’t really pursue them (I’ve done this for a living for many years as well, performing professionally since the mid 1980s). I never do “free” either, as such, and basically take a percentage of what is raised or a flat fee that covers my costs. I also negotiate TV and radio appearances, newspaper coverage, etc, in exchange for things.
Great advice and ideas here. I appreciate you sharing the things you have and enjoy the podcast. You’ve encouraged this old boy to change things up a bit and try to get more out of these types of events. In fact, I’m getting ready right now to send out a proposal for a charity event I just received yesterday and am going to negotiate it on my new terms and see what I can make of it.
Thanks, Paul! Keep up the good work! I’m looking forward to the next episode!