How to price tickets for your first show

Price your first show from your costs, not from the room's capacity. Add up what the night costs, divide by a conservative attendance estimate, add 20 to 30 percent, and round up to a clean number. For $1,200 in costs and 75 expected buyers, that lands at $20. The six steps below walk through it.

Step 1. Add up everything you have to pay no matter what

Before you can set a price, you need a real number for what the night costs you. Open a spreadsheet (or a notes app) and write out every line item that will be true whether 10 people show up or 200:

• Venue cost. A flat rental, a percentage of the door, or a guarantee. If it is a percentage, write out what percentage of what (gross? net? after platform fees? before?). Ambiguity here is how arguments start.
• Artist guarantees. Whatever you contractually owe headliner and openers if zero tickets sell. If everyone is on a door percentage with no guarantee, that line is $0, and the artists share the risk with you.
• Sound, lights, security. Even at a small venue there is usually a sound engineer and door staff. Sometimes these are bundled into the venue rental, sometimes they are billed separately. Ask, do not assume.
• Marketing. Print run for flyers, an Instagram boost, a paid feature in a local listing. Whatever you plan to spend, not what you would spend if you had unlimited budget.
• Platform fees. For DIY Stubs, that is 3% per paid ticket, or nothing from you if buyers cover it. Buyers pay Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ card processing at checkout, so it does not come out of your revenue. For other platforms, read their pricing page and write it down before you commit.

Add those up. That is your floor. The night has to cover at least that much in ticket revenue or you are paying out of pocket.

Step 2. Estimate honest attendance

The single most common mistake first-time promoters make is pricing against the venue's capacity. Capacity is the legal maximum. It is not what you are going to sell. For a first show with a brand new event, plan for half of capacity, and only do that if you have a confident reason (the headliner has a real local following, you are booking into an established venue's regular night, etc.). If you do not have those reasons, plan for a third.

Two numbers worth tracking: a planning attendance (what you plan against, conservative) and a stretch attendance (what the room could fit if everything goes right). Your prices and costs should make the night work at the planning number. If you hit stretch, that is profit. If you priced against stretch and only hit planning, you are short.

Step 3. Compute the break-even price

Divide your total cost from step 1 by your planning attendance from step 2. That is your break-even price per ticket. If your costs add up to $1,200 and you are planning for 75 attendees, the break-even price is $16. Below that and you lose money. At that exact price you break even and have done a lot of work for no margin.

Add a margin on top. A common rule on small shows is to add 20 to 30 percent for headroom, so the night pays you for the time you put in. In the example above, that puts you at $19 to $21. Round to $20.

Step 4. Sanity check against the local market

Now look at what comparable shows in your city are charging. Same scene, same venue size, similar buzz level. Local listings, social media event pages, and the venue's own calendar are the most reliable sources. You are looking for the price band, not a single number.

Three outcomes are possible:

• Your break-even-plus-margin lands inside the local band. Great, your economics work and you are priced at market.
• You are priced below the band. Either your costs are unusually low, or you are leaving money on the table. Consider going higher.
• You are priced above the band. Either the costs are higher than the market can support (renegotiate the venue or the guarantees), or your show has to genuinely be worth the premium (which is rare for a first show). Most of the time, this means revisit costs.

Step 5. Pick a tier structure

On DIY Stubs you can sell multiple ticket tiers from one page, with quantity caps and on-sale and off-sale windows per tier. The point of tiering is to reward early commitment, signal social proof when the cheaper tiers sell out, and capture more revenue from late buyers who are going to come either way.

A three-tier default that works

For a first show, a simple structure that holds up:

• Early bird at about 25 percent below the advance price. Cap the quantity at maybe 20 percent of your planning attendance so it runs out and gives buyers a real deadline. Use a tier off-sale date a few weeks before the show, or let it sell out naturally.
• Advance at your computed price. This is the main tier. Most of your revenue should come from here.
• Day of show or at the door at about 20 to 30 percent above advance. People who walk up are paying for the convenience of deciding last minute. Some promoters skip this and stop online sales at doors-open time; both approaches are valid.

Avoid having more than three tiers on a first show. More tiers do not sell more tickets, they just confuse the buyer.

Step 6. Round to a clean number

$20 is friendlier than $19. $25 is friendlier than $24. The buyer is going to remember the number, mention it to friends, and use it to decide if your show is worth the time. Clean numbers also make door cash easier if you take any walk-ups in cash.

Round up, not down. If your computed price is $22.50, the answer is $25, not $20. Rounding down to look generous is the kind of decision that feels good and costs you a thousand dollars across a few shows.

A few things people get wrong

• Treating sold tickets as net revenue. Sold tickets are gross. Net is what hits your bank after fees and processing. For a refresher, see gross vs net revenue.
• Comping too many tickets. Every comp is a paid ticket you did not sell. Make a rule (artists' guest list capped at 5 each, no industry comps after a certain date) and stick to it.
• Discounting on social media at the last minute. Trains buyers to wait for the discount on the next show. Use limited early bird tiers instead, where the discount has a real reason attached to it.
• Forgetting day-of-show costs. Cash for the door staff tip, the run for water and snacks, the parking ticket. Tiny line items add up. Add a buffer in step 1.

After the show, do this

Within a day or two while it is fresh, write down: what the show cost (compare to your plan), how many tickets sold at each tier, how many comps went out and why, and your honest read on whether the price felt right. That document is the most valuable thing you take from your first show. The second show priced from real numbers is much easier than the first.

Related on DIY Stubs

• For organizers, full docs, including how tiers, capacity, and on-sale windows work in the product.
• Payouts and fees, for the fee numbers that go into step 1.
• Door split, so the agreement with the venue and the artists is unambiguous.