DOES AFTON ONLY CARE ABOUT TICKET SALES?

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Every so often an artist will ask us:

“Why does it seem like Afton only cares about ticket sales?”

We never want our artists to feel like ticket sales are all we care about. Afton exists because we care about unsigned, independent musicians. We are musicians ourselves, and know firsthand how little the Music Industry does to support local bands and rappers. That’s why we want every artist to see the big picture.

Maximizing attendance on every show is paramount to the success of the show for everyone involved. After all, nobody likes playing to an “empty room,” and venues won’t keep allowing local shows if nobody shows up!

The truth is, there are many aspects of the show we care about and work on behind the scenes. We want you to have fun at our shows. We want you to meet other local artists and play at a great venue. We want you to showcase your music to your fans and the other artists’ fans so you can grow your fanbase. We want our artists to get paid, and we our venues to be happy with the turnout so they continue to allow more and more local shows.

So why do we focus so much on ticket sales?

1. Because playing a show with 200-300 people in the room is an unforgettable, fun experience.

2. Based on data analysis from over 14,000 shows we’ve produced, we’ve seen effective ticket selling raises attendance by about 500%.

Yes, you read that correctly. Why do you think every national tour pushes advance online ticket sales so hard? Nationally touring bands and big Promoters know that fans planning to pay at the door rarely show up. We’ve seen it happen. If every artist sells 0 tickets and relies 100% on fans “promising” to pay at the door, attendance drops significantly. Why? Because 80% of those “door promises” will flake out last minute, make other plans, or just stay home to watch Netflix and order something off of GrubHub. Click here to read why relying on door sales screws artists.

3. Anytime we’ve done away with the honor system ticket requirement, stopped our weekly check-ins with artists, or stopped watching ticket sales progress and keeping artists accountable, attendance has dropped dramatically.

Simply put, if you like playing shows with 30 people in the crowd total between 5 bands, then go play shows that don’t focus on advance ticket sales.

Afton would be doing a disservice to all of our artists if we knowingly setup our shows in a way that would hurt attendance. Our average attendance is much higher for local shows than most other local shows. Many venues ask will ask us, “How the hell do you get local shows that draw more than 40-50 people?” Every artist benefits when we’re actively keeping each artist accountable for effective promotion and ticket sales.

In Summary

So do we only care about ticket sales?

Of course not. We care about everything that involves creating a successful live concert. But our top priority when you book with MyAfton is that your show has the biggest crowd possible.

Remember, your Booking Rep’s job is to offer encouragement and strategies on how to maximize your draw for every show. We have our MyAfton Blog, Afton Musician Podcast, and so many resources for emerging musicians.

Reach out to your Booking Rep when you feel like you’re not making progress or get discouraged, that’s what they’re there for. They want to help solve any roadblocks you face and teach you how to sell more tickets than you ever thought possible.

It’s our job to to focus on whatever it takes to maximize attendance. But even if a lot of our focus might be on ticket sales, we are always thinking about every aspect of the show (venue, logistics, staffing, artist perks, promotion, the lineup, promo codes for fans, etc).

We are here to help however we can.

Let’s sellout your next Afton show, together.