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Do you raise your rates in December?


GCDEF

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One of our regular clubs offered us 4 nights in December at our usual rates. I appreciate his business, but we can make a ton of money playing parties then. Do you guys charge your regular clubs more around the holidays? Turn the gigs down? Raise your rates? What?

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Originally posted by Terry Allan Hall

Make a counter-offer.

 

 

That's what the singer said, and I probably will. I've worked with this club for a long time. The email I got for december had 10 nights total in other months too, so I'm inclined to cut him some slack.

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Originally posted by Meatball Fulton

If you want to keep the dates open for parties, then don't take the gigs. Asking for more money because you MIGHT get asked to do a party is extortion.


Hey, I might get calls for some weddings in June, should I jack up my price then, too? Get real!
:rolleyes:

 

We will get asked for parties. We already have 2 booked in december for 3 times our normal club rate.

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Originally posted by GCDEF



That's what the singer said, and I probably will. I've worked with this club for a long time. The email I got for december had 10 nights total in other months too, so I'm inclined to cut him some slack.

 

 

I'd probanly accept two furthest away from Xmas and explain that you're already booked for the other two...thus staying on his good side for the other dates.

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If your prospects are really that good for getting some lucrative Christmas parties, take one club date during the first weekend of the month & keep the other dates open. If he asks why only one, tell him the truth.

 

The fact is that you could play two private parties and make more $ than if you play all four dates at his club. Any business man who isn't a complete jerk will understand the math. It also leaves the door open for "What if I paid you THIS much?"

 

BTW, Merry Christmas. :)

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I would take 1 or 2 dates and explain that the left is open for parties.... and that you make$$$ money in that period. He'll understand or counteroffer.

 

I'm not sure the type of music or act you play... but we are truely in different markets. Four dates at the same club in NY is suicide. We try to spread the good ones out 4-6 weeks apart and the B lists 8-12.

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Originally posted by Meatball Fulton

If you want to keep the dates open for parties, then don't take the gigs. Asking for more money because you MIGHT get asked to do a party is extortion.


Hey, I might get calls for some weddings in June, should I jack up my price then, too? Get real!
:rolleyes:

 

That's not extortion, that's good business sense. Our rates go up in summer because there is a greater demand for wedding bands in the summer. We want to make the most $$$ that the market will bear. We would't sell ourselves short and neither should GCDEF; or anyone else for that matter.

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The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the slowest of the year for live music clubs. Everyone thinks that because bars make such a killing on New Years Eve that the whole month of December is an up one, but if you've been in this business for awhile you'll realize that December as a whole is a wash for most rooms.

 

Either turn the dates down from the club and play your private parties, or play the bar at your regular rate. Don't push the club for more money... you may not like the results.

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Originally posted by mrcpro

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the slowest of the year for live music clubs. Everyone thinks that because bars make such a killing on New Years Eve that the whole month of December is an up one, but if you've been in this business for awhile you'll realize that December as a whole is a wash for most rooms.


Either turn the dates down from the club and play your private parties, or play the bar at your regular rate. Don't push the club for more money... you may not like the results.

 

 

I don't think I'm going to hit him up for more, especially as this is the club that gives us way more business than anyone else. Any parties we book we're likely to book pretty far in advance, enough that we can cancel if we have to. We're expecting another round of club bookings in a few weeks, so I'm going to see what happens there too before I do anything.

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