This is the second part of our chat with John Wilder, Ain’t Yo Mama‘s guitarist (the first part is here). Here he explains how his band makes money with gigs, as well as the type of scheduling they put in place to optimize their earnings.
How they deal with gig-revenue and merchandise sales:
What does the above net me a night? In our area if I do all this and follow through, I can usually draw 250-300 people.
- When we handle the door we charge $7.50 a head, that’s $1875-$2250 a night.
- Some clubs give us all the door, some I have to give up to $300 to get the venue, but if I go back usually I get it free the second time.
- I’m spending around $300 on ads, swag to the girls.
- I don’t account for all the running around I do.
- And don’t forget merchandise. You need a full complement of stuff to sell people. #1 is a cd. Even a cd of covers is worth $5. T-shirts, we have sunglasses, beer huggies, lanyards with backstage pass on them. I’m currently trying to find some guitar pics with our name on them.
- You need stuff starting at $1-$2, all the way up to t-shirts for $15-20, I found these cheap tote bags that we stuff with a bunch of stuff for $30, and yes people will spend the money. Last Saturday we played a wrestling event and sold $660 worth of swag. Get some kind of merch to sell. At our gigs we gross $400-800 in swag sells.
As you can see our band can gross around $3000 a night in places where you might get $300. It’s all in how you handle it.
How they manage their gig schedule:
Another thing is we don’t want to play an area more than one time in a 3 month period. If you play the same place over and over you just become a house band making $60 a member a night. Currently we are working a 4 city area and looking to expand. I’m only scheduling club gigs every 3 weeks, but the band winds up making more in one of these gigs than we would playing 3-4 gigs a month the traditional way.
Concluding words of wisdom:
Remember this is a business, to be successful you must treat it that way. Most people are so protective of their music, like its so special, well Im here to tell you its not. There’s thousands of other bands playing almost the exact same thing that you are. Just start thinking about what you can do to stand out. Don’t take the rejections personal, just move on to the next thing. And DON’T, I REPEAT, DON’T BURN ANY BRIDGES, the people you cuss out over not booking you or listening to your music may pop up again and again in the position to help you. Bite your tongue and go cuss a tree or something, and never badmouth anyone in the business just mention oh yeah hes a great guy even if he is a jerk. He could be hiring you in the future. I know most of these things from mistakes Ive made through the years.
