Determining ticket prices might seem like you're just pulling numbers out of you a**. And I'm not going to lie... sometimes that is certainly the case.
But if you really want to sell more tickets and make more money, then strategically pricing tickets is a vital component of doing just that. Tickets should be priced at just the right point - balancing between making enough money from the concert while also ensuring that you are providing fair value to your ticket buyers.
Price tickets based on the fair value you're offering to your ticket buyers. As you add value, your ticket prices can increase. Alternatively, if you decrease value, ticket prices should decrease. Here are some general rules of thumb to follow:
The higher the quality, the higher the value. If the venue has comfortable seating or excellent acoustics. If the musical ensemble is excellent and reputable. If the hired musicians and guests artists are professional. These are all indicators that the value is high and therefore the ticket pricing can be higher.
The more exciting the concert, the higher the value. Are you going to have unique or popular programming? Is your chorus entertaining as hell? Is the concert likely to sell-out? Do you have a celebrity in attendance? The excitement and popularity factor adds value which should be reflected in your pricing.
The more events or special offerings, the higher the value. Are you offering a reception with food and drinks? Perhaps a pre-concert lecture or a post-concert meet-and-greet with the artists? When you add special events or benefits, add that into your ticket prices.
There are many factors that go into pricing tickets. Use this list of considerations to ensure that your pricing is on track with the value you are providing.
Find out what has or hasn't worked with your ticket prices in the past and use that knowledge to influence your ticket prices for next time. Here is some data you might want to reference:
It's very important to keep your target audience in mind when developing a ticket pricing strategy. Survey your audiences for feedback to help identify what your audience is willing to pay. Here is a list of sample questions you can ask:
Similarly, you should reference any post-concert surveyed audience data to help support your pricing strategy. If you send surveys to your audiences after each performance, gather information such as:
The chorus's musical quality and reputation play some part in your ticket pricing strategy. If you're part of a brand new amateur choral organization you might start with low-priced or free tickets to get people in the door and start to build a following. Alternatively, if you're a well-known ensemble with professional quality musicians, you'll likely be able to charge more for your tickets.
If you have an excellent venue with a good reputation, comfortable seats, good ushers and door-sales personnel, and wonderful acoustics, then it's perfectly reasonable for you to ask for more money to attend a show. Usually these types of venues are more expensive anyway and you'll need to charge more for your tickets in order to break even!
If you're performing out of a high school auditorium, however, people aren't going to want to pay top-dollar to hear you there. So be sure to factor in your performance space into your ticket prices accordingly.
The number of seats in a venue will help you do some basic calculations for prices. Know how many seats are in the house, how many tiers of seats might be needed, and a general goal for how many seats you may want to sell.
The date of a performance can also influence your ticket prices. Think about whether you should adjust the ticket prices based on when your concerts fall. Should summer concerts be cheaper? Should December holiday concerts be more?
Regarding time of day - it's relatively standard for arts organizations to charge less for matinee or early afternoon concerts whereas evening performances can be pricier.
If the concert is conveniently located for your audience - accessible by car and public transportation, for example - then you might get away with higher-priced tickets. If it's a pain to get to your performance venue, considering decreasing the price of tickets to help overcome this obstacle.
The concert programming must be a part of your ticket pricing strategy. Think about the musical pieces in your program - are they extremely popular or well-loved? Do you have a unique, once-in-a-lifetime program? Are premiering something brand new or perhaps celebrating something exciting? These are all indicators that your ticket pricing should be on the higher side.
If the program is just a run-of-the-mill performance, it's going to be hard to justify higher-priced tickets.
The more prestige and popularity of your guest artists, the higher the value. If you're one of those choruses lucky enough to get a celebrity to come to your concert, you better be upping those ticket prices! Even local celebrities can help add value to your ticket buyers. So be sure your tickets accurately represent the celeb-status of your guest artists and speakers.
You'll need to consider both your concert expenses and other non-ticket-sales income you'll bring in. This is just to help give you a baseline for what income you need from ticket sales in order to break even financially.
It's a good idea to get a sense of what other choruses of similar quality, size, and repertoire in your community are charging for their performances. Are you in line with their pricing? Do you provide more value and can offer higher prices? Or vice versa?
Discounts are a great way to motivate ticket buyers to purchase tickets earlier. But it's hard to offer discounts if your tickets are priced too low. So make sure that you've thought about what discounts you'll want to offer your audiences before setting the price of tickets.
Okay, so we've discussed a lot of considerations for pricing tickets. So, how do you get started? I have a simple formula for you to get a baseline pricing strategy going:
(Actual Expenses - Expected Other Income)/Seats Likely to Sell = Average Ticket Price Needed
Let's break this down a tad.
Take your "Actual Expenses" (all concert expenditures) and subtract out any "other" income you'll get apart from ticket sales (such as sponsorships, donations, advertising, etc.). This leaves you with the total amount you need from ticket sales to break even for that concert.
Now take a look at your historical data of selling tickets. On average, how many tickets can you sell at this venue with this type of programming? That number becomes your "Seats Likely to Sell."
So you simply take your "Break Even Ticket Sales Revenue" and divide that by the "Seats Likely to Sell." This becomes your average ticket price needed.
Go ahead and try the formula with these sample numbers:
($30,000-$20,000)/300 = ~$33 average per ticket
If you're only selling one ticket level or tier, this makes everything easy. You can sell tickets around $33 each and you'll break even for the performance.
If you decide to tier your ticket prices, you'll want to make sure that the ticket price levels and your estimated ticket sales quantity for each level average out to around $33 per ticket or a total of $10,000 in ticket sales revenue. A quick example of this: (100 tickets @ $20) + (100 tickets @ $35) + (100 tickets @ $50) = $10,500.
If you want to make money off of a concert (and not just break even!), then add the additional revenue you hope to bring in for that performance to the calculations.
Once you've put together your first draft of ticket prices, let's go back to each consideration above. Ask yourselves the following questions:
If the answer is yes to each of these questions, then your ticket pricing strategy is a go! If not, don't be afraid to go back to the drawing board. This could mean that you need to rethink the value of your tickets. Or it could mean that you need to adjust the concert expenses and other income. Keep reworking the prices until you feel comfortable with the money you'll bring in and the value you'll provide to your audience!