Creating a Successful Live Music Event Plan

• Event Planning
• Higher Education (non-degree)

Creating a Successful Live Music Event Plan

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to understand how to create a live music event plan.

Introduce the learning objective of the lesson to the students and explain why it is important to learn how to create a live music event plan.

As a class, let's name some aspects of live event planning that we are already aware of.

Choosing the Type of Event

Types of events include concerts, festivals, and showcases. Consider factors such as the target audience, artists, and budget before choosing the type of event.

Knowing which type of event you are putting on is essential as different events have different planning requirements. 

Explain the importance of choosing the right type of event and provide examples of different types of events.

Setting the Date and Venue

Consider factors such as weather, artist availability, and location accessibility when setting the date and venue of the event. Choose a venue that can accommodate the expected number of attendees and has appropriate amenities.

Discuss the factors that should be considered when setting the date and venue of the event and provide tips for choosing the right venue.

Creating a Budget

A budget should include costs such as venue rental, artist fees, marketing, and staffing. Create a budget that is realistic and includes a contingency plan for unexpected expenses.

Artist Fees

Venue Cost

Staffing

Promotion/

Marketing

Explain the importance of creating a budget and provide tips for creating a realistic budget for a live music event.

Booking Artists

Consider factors such as the target audience, availability, and budget when booking artists for the event. Negotiate contracts that include details such as performance time, payment, and travel expenses.

Who are the target audience?

Artist Fee 

Travel Expense

Artist Rider

Discuss the factors that should be considered when booking artists for a live music event and provide tips for negotiating contracts.

Marketing the Event

Use various marketing channels such as social media, email, and flyers to promote the event. Consider factors such as the target audience and budget when creating a marketing plan.

Social Media Ads

Email Marketing

Flyers

Promotion stunts

Discuss the importance of marketing a live music event and provide tips for creating an effective marketing plan.

Selling Tickets

Use online ticketing platforms such as Eventbrite or Ticketmaster to sell tickets. Consider factors such as ticket pricing and availability when selling tickets.

Pricing - is the price reasonable?

Early Bird Tickets

Creating a sense of FOMO

Ticket Website

Explain the importance of selling tickets and provide tips for using online ticketing platforms.

Hiring Staff

Hire staff such as security, sound engineers, and event coordinators to ensure the event runs smoothly. Consider factors such as the size of the event and budget when hiring staff.

Security

Catering

Sound & Lighting Team

Discuss the importance of hiring staff for a live music event and provide tips for hiring the right staff members.

Preparing for the Event

Prepare for the event by conducting sound checks, setting up equipment, and ensuring that all staff are aware of their roles. Have a contingency plan for unexpected issues such as bad weather or technical difficulties.

Equipment set-up

Sound Checks

Are staff aware of their roles?

Are you prepared for the unexpected?

Explain the importance of preparing for the event and provide tips for ensuring that everything runs smoothly on the day of the event.

After the Event

After the event, evaluate the success of the event and address any issues that arose. Consider factors such as attendance, revenue, and attendee feedback when evaluating the success of the event. The insight gathered in this evaluation can be used to make your next event more successful.

How can we improve our next event?

How can we sell more tickets next time round?

What have we learnt about our existing customers?

We're there any problems at our last event and what can we do to avoid them next time?

Explain the importance of evaluating the success of the event and provide tips for evaluating the event effectively.

Activity

For the remainder of the lesson, using the worksheets on your desk, you will be putting together a hypothetical music event with a budget of £50,000. Luckily the staffing for your event has been covered by volunteers and the food & drink vendors have accepted a contract which allows them to sell food for free giving you 20% of what they make.

You will need to consider:

- A venue (Capacity)

- Who are the target audience of your event?

- Which artists will you book? (3/5 artists/bands)

- How will you sell tickets? (Pricing, ticket vendors)

- Discussing how you will promote the event

Provide case studies of successful live music events and discuss the factors that contributed to their success.

Artist Pricing

Venue Hiring

Artist Followers	Artist Fee
Under 10k	Free
5k-50k	£5,000
50k-100k	£7,500
100k-250k	£10,000
250k+	15,000

Venue capacity	Venue Hire Price
1000	£5000
2,500	£7500
5000	£10,000
10,000	£15,000
20,000	£25,000

How can you ensure that your event will break-even?

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

Here, students enter two things they would like to know more about. This not only increases involvement, but also gives them more ownership.

Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.

The students indicate here (in question form) with which part of the material they still have difficulty. For the teacher, this not only provides insight into the extent to which the students understand/master the material, but also a good starting point for the next lesson.