I volunteer at a small venue (maximum 60 seats) that offers "folk music" every Thursday night September through May. The venue is in the meeting room of a local restaurant and is operated under non-profit tax status. The only paid help is the performers. Because it is a restaurant people are able to order meals to eat just before and during the show.

We draw performers from up and down the Eastern Coast of the USA. Most of the performers are working music as a full-time occupation. Many have loyal, full-time employed significant others at home. Some of the performers are part-time in the music business.

I don't work the business end, but I believe we pay performers 60 - 70% of the gate with a guaranteed minimum fee of $100 or $150. Most tickets are $10, sometimes it is $12. We feed the performer dinner and will put them up in a nice house (nicer than mine, and mine is OK)for a night (or sometimes two).

In addition, we provide staff to sell the performers tapes and CD's (usually referred to as "product" yuck!).

There are nights we may draw only 10 or 15 people and other nights we turn people away. We as much "free" PR aw we can . We have a web-site, a large mailing list and we distribute to all of the local papers. We have a core of 6 -10 people who show up every Thursday and plunk down their money.

I am digressing. If we draw 10 people at $10 bucks, the performer gets the minimum of $100 to $150. If 5 of those people buy CD's, the performer may make another $50.

Financially this is night was not truly monetarily rewarding for the performer. The upside is that the performer has developed some contacts in our area and some of our audience is well-connected to the "folk-scene" in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area. Another gig next time through may draw more or another venue may decide to book the artist on word of mouth. In industry speak they have created some "buzz" in a new area.

On the other hand, we could fill the house with 50 customers at $12 a head and the artist may sell as many as 15 CD's. Now it is a $510 night and is drifting into a profitable undertaking.

There are some good books on how to make money in the music business. Working at this venue has made it clear to me that I am not willing to work that hard to fulfill a dream of working as a musician full-time. There is a signicant amount of work aside from practice that goes into full-time performing. At the start, most performers will be their own publicist and their own booking agent. Later they may be able to hire others, but at the start it is perhaps a one person show.

Thought a few from one part of the venue side may be helpful to everyone. If I find time, I will try to dig out those good books that discuss how to do all of this.

Big RiB