Archive for 2010
Several Non-Opinions about Ticket Pricing
1. Tickets to live entertainment and arts, like everything, respond to market forces. Whether you or I like it, love it, or hate it, nobody gets to defy gravity. The physics of supply and demand are not a switch that gets turned on or off. Except at the point of a gun. 2. The nature [...]
Tips for Giving a Performance Review
It’s tough letting a knight know he’s not bloodthirsty enough, but I managed to be firm but fair. There are several other really great videos we did with the gang from Medieval Times, which you can see at Goldstar’s Youtube page. The MT gang were great fun! Thanks for hanging with us in Pasadena, Lords [...]
A Non-Profit Doesn’t HAVE to Lose Money
Technically, the main difference between a non-profit organization and a for profit one is that a non-profit can’t distribute its “surplus” (aka, profits) to shareholders. In other words, investors/donors can’t expect any money back from their investment. But that surplus can be “reinvested” in things like salaries, buildings, and new programs and often is. Or [...]
You Can Choose Not to Be Affected by Market Forces…
…like you can choose not to be affected by gravity. It’s there, effecting the behavior of everyone you encounter. In their buying, in their giving, in their thinking. It’s not even really about money; it’s about dealing with scarcity in time, attention, love, and yes, money. It’s not some agreed-to game that we’re all playing, [...]
The Wisdom of the Soda Seller
Suppose I have a really simple business: I sell sodas on the beach from a little booth. (Actually, some days, that would sound kind of appealing.) My two expenses are the rent that I pay for the booth and the cost of the soda, which I pay to a wholesaler. And let’s say I pay [...]
Make it For An Audience, or Don’t Have the Nerve to Charge Money
Yesterday, I tweeted Derek Siver’s insightful post he called “Valuable to Others, or Only You?” In short, he describes the “starving artist” problem: “When someone creates something that is really important, powerful, and valuable to them, it’s hard to imagine that it’s not important, powerful, and valuable to others.” This creates a problem for those [...]
The 4% Rule
For non-profits in the live entertainment business, I’d like to suggest that no donor make up more than 4% of your total budget. This is a percentage that a lot of wealth managers set as the maximum you should hold in any one stock, and while there’s nothing magical about this number, you’ve got to [...]
Check Your Alignment
A few weeks ago, someone asked me what was going to happen with the concert business. Clearly, with a lot of artists out on the road and many of them having lukewarm (and I’m being generous there) demand, something had to give. Sure, prices will (and did) come down, but structurally, that doesn’t change the [...]
Do You Refuse To Pander? Do You Think You’d Be Good at It If You Tried?
Sometimes (as yesterday in the wonderful 2 Am Theatre Twitter conversation which you can find at #2amt) there’s a discussion among arts and theatre producers that goes like this: A: We have to think of our audience when we create our work. B: No, we must only think of ourselves and our art. Otherwise, it’s [...]
Everybody’s a Rock Star Somewhere, Part 2
(If you want, go back and catch up on what led into this story from yesterday. If you don’t, it’s ok. You’ll still get it.) Here’s a little story I want to share from two start-ups that I’ve been a part of. The first, which I won’t name, but those of you who know me [...]
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