 Hey everybody what's going on it's ya man Kory, welcome to the Digital Dash where I be giving you guys tips on how to market your songs and get those numbers booming. Now with those of you who don't know who I am, I'm a digital marketer myself. I specialize in helping artists like you guys get their songs heard through platforms like Spotify, Instagram, YouTube and a bunch of others. Now what I want to talk to you guys about today is should you be paying to get on to shows. Now it's something that I'm pretty sure that you've ran into at least once or twice in your career if you've ever even thought about doing shows anywhere in your hometown or at a festival or at shows out of state. Now I want to give you guys the outside perspective of it looking at it from being a promoter and how I genuinely feel like you guys should look at it being the artist that you are. With that being said let's get right into it. Now like I was saying, if you're an artist I'm pretty sure that at some point you've been asked to pay to get on to a show. You know pay me X, Y and Z to get on to this showcase or give me this amount of dollars and I'll let you open up for this artist who's coming into town. It's something that promoters use a lot of times to make their money back on the back end. And I'm sure that it's something that a lot of you have wondered why are they even charging me to be on to this show anyway it doesn't make sense. Now shameless plug, as a promoter myself I can give you guys a little bit of insight into why that's so. Now as a promoter we do accrue all of these costs when putting your show together. You have the booking fee for the headlining artist, you have the venue cost, the cost to get alcohol and all of the little small details that it takes to make a show successful and memorable. And like I said for a lot of promoters they pass that cost on to the people who want to open up for their artist. So if I put together a $5,000 show I could maybe make $3,000 back at least by charging six artists $500 to open up for whatever artists that we have coming into town. So as a promoter I can definitely understand why they would charge someone to be on to that show. I'm a firm believer in if you've built up a platform then you deserve to make money off of that platform however you see fit. But if I were you guys, if I were an artist would I necessarily pay to get on to the show? Not really. Now should you pay to get on to a show? That's a question that doesn't really have a right or wrong answer. It pretty much depends on the nature of the show and what your potential benefits could be from being a part of that show. So if you ever get approached by a promoter or catch wind of a promoter who's charging to be on the show there are things that you can look at to sort of internalize and figure out if it's worth it for you to pay to get on to the show. One of the first things that you should look at is the price of the show and if there are other things that you should be doing. So let's say for example that a promoter tells you that for $1500 you can open up a little baby for 10 minutes. Now really sit back and think to yourself are there other things that I could be doing with this $1500 that would much further my career? If the answer is no and the show could kind of be the best thing that you're doing then go for it. But if you can think of at least two to three other things that you should be doing with that money then I would definitely say go for that before you pay to get on to the show. The reason being is as an artist your ultimate goal should be to build yourself up enough that this promoter will want to come and book you for the show and have you there outside of it just being that you pay to be on the show in the first place. Another thing that you'll definitely want to do is consider the audience that's going to come out for the show. Now, keeping getting a little baby example, if you make music like Taylor Swift then chances are you will be wasting your money. The crowd will probably not rock with you and they'll definitely leave during your set. But if you make the type of music and it fits within your brand then it could be a good look for you especially if you have a way to make a content for your fan base and add it on to your brand overall. If it's more of a showcase setting then definitely researching to the other artists that will be on the show see what type of crowds they bring out if they even make the same type of music as you or the type of music that even fits closely to your songs and just overall see if the crowd will even be worth it to pay the money. Another thing to consider is could this show be a good networking opportunity. Sometimes there are industry people in these paid to play showcases that you may want to meet who could genuinely help you further your career while the other artists on the bill that you want to meet is the promoter someone that you want to know. If you feel like there's some type of networking value in the show and they're not asking for a crazy amount of money to be a part of the show then it may be something that you should consider. And lastly in my opinion this is one of the most important things that you should consider when even thinking about paying to get on to a show and that's do you have a team and do you have a game plan. Meaning that if you go and do this show do you have a videographer that can capture this show and have content for you to post throughout the week. Do you have a photographer that can get some cool show pictures. You have a friend that can go into the crowd and collect emails and social media handles. Do you have another friend that can sit in the back and sell merch so that hopefully you make some of your money back. If not then I would definitely reconsider paying to get on to these shows as you want to leave out this situation with at least a couple of new fans maybe having put some money back into your pocket and having a good experience that you can share with your fans so they start to believe in your journey. Real quick bonus tip if you've never done a show before then it's something that you should consider just to get your show experience up. Trust me guys no promoter wants to book somebody who's never performed before. Now as always guys if you feel like you're learning anything today please like and share this video hit those post notifications as well as I wouldn't want you guys to miss anything. Once again my name is Corey and I'll see y'all next time.