Tricks of The Trade: What Small Venues Are Doing To Bolster Ticket Sales
posted in: Features • Music News
Like larger venues, clubs are trying to sell tickets to financially strapped fans by deploying social media, dangling discounts and free goodies and even sleeping with the enemy: neighboring rock clubs!
“Venues are forced to get creative,” said Samantha Bullock of INDIGENOUS Promotions, who works with bands LESANDS and Tape Deck Mountain and promotes The Rumble, an eight-city network of free indie-music showcases.
Clubs are pushing more value in experiences and spreading the word with technology. At The Casbah (San Diego), tweeted codewords get redeemed for discounts. The Roxy Theatre (West Hollywood) experiments with ticket incentives like posters or parking validation.
The Roxy on the Sunset Strip
“Some people thought the phone would never stop ringing, [but] the economy was a real wake-up call for the [Sunset] Strip,” said Nic Adler, who co-owns the 500-capacity Roxy Theatre. Competition from other creative enclaves added to area woes. Adler aimed to nix the club-against-club mentality and promote the region as a rock bloc. This ‘all boats rise with the tide’ philosophy encouraged the Whisky, the Cat Club and others to come along for the ride.
When @TheViperRoom arrived on Twitter, @TheRoxy tweeted its 10,000 fans to herald its nemesis, ushering in an era of Strip Solidarity. A Sunset Strip Music Festival is even held each summer to promote the scene and venues.
The Rumble crowd at Bar Pink San Diego
This year, big tours have dropped dates. Promoters tried to fill seats with $10 tickets and Coachella addressed sticker shock by offering concert goers EZ-payment plans. Clubs are brainstorming, too. Some venues are short selling unsold tickets opting to make bank from booze sales while Sunset Strip ˜Tweet Crawls’ connect the rock-spot dots. They have even directed fans to other club doors, Adler swears.
Becky Ebenkamp is a Pop Cultural anthropologist and former West Coast Bureau Chief for Adweek Media. Becky has a radio show called Bubblegum & Other Delights that airs 7 to 9 p.m. PST every other Tuesday on www.killradio.org