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Tips for Effective Budgeting for a Live Music Venue Monday, September 26th, 6:00 PM
How budgeting can make all the difference in your live music venue’s success

Austin, United States - September 26, 2022 / Prism.fm /

Successfully organizing a concert is a highwire act that harnesses both the creative impulse and logistical competence. While imagination is essential when matching an act with a concert venue, a well-tuned budgeting process is the foundation that keeps everything afloat. In a quickly revamping post-pandemic concert world still recovering from a major shock to the system, that process has never been more critical to bottom-line success.

But while budgeting can be a hassle, when done well, it can also be an opportunity. By successfully troubleshooting problems in advance and utilizing software that can streamline the budgeting process, the concert organizer or venue operator can approach the event with confidence that the show's potential will be captured.

Keys to Successfully Budgeting for a Live Concert

The last few years have been an inflated version of every venue operator's biggest nightmare. When 2020 began, the live-music industry was on the verge of another record year of ticket sales. But instead of the party continues, the unthinkable happened just as everything seemed to be on the up and up. The end result of the pandemic was stunning: nearly $10 billion in lost ticket sales and another $30 billion in lost revenue from merchandising and sponsorship details.  

Yet the live-concert experience lives on, evolving with the help of new technology and driven by industry professionals determined to make up for the lost time. With budgeting even more important than before, some of the keys to budgeting success include:

  • Getting (and keeping) everyone on the same page
  • Modernizing your budget tracking system through automation
  • Knowing the fine print and flexible expenses
  • Taking off the rose-colored glasses

The Importance of Integration and Real-Time Budgeting

The glory days of handwritten notes, phone numbers written on the backs of hands, and crunching numbers on a calculator (or by hand) are remnants of a quickly fading world. While nostalgia has its place—especially in music—the venues that stay profitable in the pandemic world are forced to adapt while putting together budget templates.

Although old-school communication could theoretically still work, the right software will bring together all parts of your team while customizing the information to fit a specific event. Sending team-wide messages, uploading new information, and making changes to the event plan should be very easy in the modern landscape – as long as you have the right platform in place. Having everyone pulling in the same direction helps you avoid budget-killing mistakes while more efficiently using the time of your entire team.

Letting Automation Do the Legwork

Meanwhile, automation should be able to do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to the actual number crunching. The days of delayed ticket-sales updates are rapidly dying, as end-to-end software can now update you in real-time as sales come through. This gives any venue operator an enormous advantage in terms of pulling together the overall financial picture in the lead-up to the event.

Related: A Quick Guide to Concert Budget Breakdowns for Music Venues

As expenses go from estimates to actual costs, a venue operator should be able to see the entire event falling into place. And if you're still relying on Excel spreadsheets instead of an all-in-one platform for budgeting, you're wasting valuable time you can spend elsewhere. For an industry that is expected to resume its revenue climb after the pandemic freefall, joining the automation revolution will be a critical part of an operator's success.

The Fine Print and Balancing Optimism with Reality

The old cliché of "hope for the best, but plan for the worst" remains an effective motto in the challenging post-pandemic world of concert budgeting. Coming up with a reasonable level of optimism begins by knowing all the budgeting basics as well as periphery costs (e.g., health protocols and extra security). Understanding the ins and outs of the artist's deal, as well as knowing exactly what is to be included in the venue package, are both critical to piecing together a budget.

For a venue operator or a promoter renting a venue, you should also have a very strong sense of the production costs, such as:

  • Staging, sound, and lighting
  • Parking attendants and related costs
  • Utilities
  • Clean-up

Successfully estimating such flexible expenses beforehand will give you a leg up when it comes to turning a profit and smoothly handling the settlement process. Here, you don't want to make any assumptions about who is responsible for the costs, and it's best to get concrete figures whenever possible. While it's not feasible to know it all in advance, you should be ready to handle a range of potential budget outcomes for the periphery costs.

Sweat the Small Stuff (But Only a Little)

Whether you're a venue operator or a promoter, you also need to spend some time looking into an event's tax impact as well as any special permits you might need. The goal here is to avoid surprises, especially when dealing with local governments not known for quick resolutions.

If you think you need a permit, for example, starting the process as early as possible is mandatory. This will let you know the cost of the permit to plug into your budget early in the process, all while helping you overcome any delays that are out of your control. Paying a last-second rush fee to ensure you have a permit can cut into your budget while being unnecessarily stressful.

Budget Efficiency Leads to Happy Experiences for Everyone

When all is said and done, every venue operator or promoter wants to provide a memorable (and safe) experience that will encourage fans to continue coming to other shows. But beyond audience satisfaction, demonstrating budget savvy and organization can also help your team feel the immediate impact of a concert's success. By quickly closing the settlement process and homing in on the bottom line, you showcase to the crew the value of a truly professional operation.

Choosing the right management tools can also help pull the entire event together in a much faster and more cohesive way than was previously possible.

Scheduling a demo with Prism can be the first step into a much more efficient world that will help you navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of live music.

Contact Information:

Prism.fm

5323 Levander Loop
Austin, TX 78721
United States

Matt Ford
https://prism.fm/

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