Venues Need to Stop Shaking Down Artists for Every Last Dollar

Last week, I went to see one of my favorite artists, Theo Katzman, play the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Theo, who I recently featured onI wanted to avoid the exorbitant service fees tacked onto the tickets when purchasing online, so I showed up to the Wiltern’s box office the moment it opened on show day to snag a $30 “face value” ticket. However, when it came time to pay, the clerk told me that it would be $35. “There’s a $5 per ticket service fee added” she explained.

Clyde Lawrence of the independent soul-pop band Lawrence, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this past January about the “lopsided deal mechanics in certain aspects of the live music industry.” Specifically, howowned and operated venues take so many of the venue and promoter expenses off the top before calculating the artist’s pay, but the artist doesn’t get to deduct any of their expenses.

Well, here’s the deal. The margins on merch are not that great. An artist might make 30% profit on a T-shirt sale , but if the venue is taking a 30% cut of merch, then the artist actually ismoney by selling merch. So the artist can either mark up their merch items or take the hit and look at merch as simply a promotional item.

Fortunately some venues are doing away with merch fees. Ineffable Live, which runs 10 venues including the Golden State Theater in Monterey, CA, the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, CA, and the Chicken Box in Nantucket, MA, got rid of their 20% merch fee following Lawrence’s testimony.

Pat_Dwy3r Nothing wrong with tips for the merch seller, be it venue or artist sells.

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