Pay Per View Music Events

Any band can webcast their live concert, and reach world-wide audiences.

It’s been said that many successful bands lose money on record sales, break even on tour ticket sales, and make all their money in merchandising. While this is a bit extreme, there’s a lot of truth to the concept.

Bands on a major (or good sized indie) label have to pay back large sums of money out of their record sales, so often it takes platinum status (1,000,000 sold) to see a profit. The substantial costs of touring can, in many cases, outweigh even healthy ticket sales. But the real benefit in touring comes from merchandising: the sales of T Shirts and other “auxiliary” products that have a high profit margin. It is when loyal audience members attend the shows of their favorite bands that they are in the right frame of mind to purchase such sundries.

So, how can a band or artist get some of the benefits of merchandise sales without the heavy cost of touring? (Not to mention the difficulty most bands have in filling the seats at their shows.) One good answer is: Pay Per View.

Pay Per View Capitalizes on Global Reach

While it’s true that the internet has opened up exciting new possibilities for local unsigned bands, it brings new challenges as well. Namely: when your fan base is thinly spread around the world, how do you connect with your audience in a cost-efficient manner?

Sure you can get a large number of fans globally, but how do you reach them with your live show? You can’t travel the planet playing for 5 to 10 people in each town. But you CAN broadcast a show that people will watch. AND you can charge them admission to that show. AND you can make it easy for them to purchase your auxiliary merchandise just when they are in the right frame of mind to do so!

How to Set Up Your Pay Per View Show

Don’t re-invent the wheel! Their are companies who make it their business to host your pay per view show. The cost is relatively small, and they’ll handle everything, letting you send a signal from your camera (or cameras) to their servers and out to your audience, to giving you a pre-packaged payment system so your audience and sign up for and purchase “tickets” to your show.

The good ones will even provide tools to help you reach your fans with information about the scheduling and other details. You can also insert advertising into your pay-per-view event, either before, during or after the show, or on the same page as a static graphic/link.

The result is that you’ll be able to connect with your fans in a “live show” format, and connect with them while their in the right frame of mind. Introduced years ago by cable networks, and used with phenomenal success by such industry stalwarts as the WWE, pay per view is now available to every band. It’s about time some of them took advantage of it!