Determining the right fee for your performance is indeed an art ... but relies on a scientific research.

Whomever does your "booking" for the chorus has to do some research into the performance fees of other similar organizations in your area. Take your Sunday newspaper supplement that has the listings of all of the entertainment offerings in your area.


1   Figure Out the "Per Hour/Per Person" Rate For
      Entertainment in Your Local Area

Let's say you have listings for college choir concerts, community theater groups, special entertainment sponsored by local groups,
movies, community sponsored shows, etc.

Lay out all of the events on a spreadsheet, estimate the time of the event (i.e., a movie is about 1-1/2 hour - 2 hours, plays are normally 2 hours including the intermission, some college concerts are an hour...etc). Then, using the ticket price of the event, determine the "Per Hour/Per Person" cost of the event. For example in our area a 2-hour movie costs $10.50, so the per hour/per person cost is $5.50. A 2-hour community theater offering goes anywhere from $18-25, so using $20 the per hour/per person, the cost is $10.

Take the average of all events captured to determine the average cost of ANY event that people in your area can attend. Let's say you find that the figure is $7.50 per hour/per person.


2   Figure Out the "Performer/Per Hour" Charge

Next, find out how much talent agents or entertainers in your area charge to have a particular performer come to a company office or some person's home to perform. We looked at clowns that tied balloons, a 3-piece Dixieland band, magicians, and a husband & wife folk singing group. The fees were as follows:

Clown - $200 for 2 hours
3-piece band - $1000 for 4 hours
Magician - $175 for 1-hour show
Husband & wife folk singers - $200 for a 1-hour show or $300 for two 1/2-hour shows separated by a period of one hour...total
time 2 hours for $300.

Follow me now...the Clown has a "performer per hour" charge of $100 ($200 divided by 2). The band has a "performer per hour" charge of $83/hour ($1000 divided by 4 divided by 3). The magician has a "performer per hour" charge of $175, and the husband & wife folk team has a maximum "performer per hour" charge of $75-100, depending on the type of show the people want. For all four of these, the average "performer per hour" charge is $114.



So what have we discovered in the research above? People pay an average of $7.50 per hour to attend an event, and the performers charge an average of $114.00 per person/per hour in the group to present their activity.


3   Applying This Research to Your Chorus

Now let's go to the performance of your chorus. Say you have a performing chorus of about 30 ladies. And your show is 1/2 hour.
BUT, let's look at the "real" time it takes to put on that performance.

I would imagine you have a call time of at least 1/2 hour before the show to be at the venue. And, if your chorus is similar to mine, your members may have to travel 1/2 hour average to get TO the event venue. So let's say that travel and warm-up time totals 1 hour.

If your gigs go like almost every performance I directed before we started using contracts, the sponsoring group is almost NEVER on time. If they said 7:30 pm, we are lucky to be on by 8:00 and sometimes later than that. So let's factor in another 1/2 hour of delay. Then the members have to return to their homes....so we add another 1/2 hour. 

Adding up the "real time commitment" to do that 1/2 hour show, you find that our singers have actually committed more than 2-1/2 hours EACH to do the performance. Taking your 30 singers, that's over 75 "performer hours" to do the gig.

If we took just the 1/2 hour show with 30 performers, in the areas researched above, the cost "should" be 15 (1/2 hour x30) x $57 (1/2 hour x $114.00) for a whopping total of $855 for the show. Then if you used the "real time commitment" you figure would go through the roof at more than $2000.

Our chorus manager has started capturing statistics about our potential audiences when he is talking to someone about our chorus performing for their group. The first question is, "How much is your budget for this event?" The second is, "How many people do you expect to attend?" He then has the information necessary to determine what he should ask for.

Assumptions:
1. We never want to sing for less than $300.
2. We will always have at least 15 singers to so the performance in costume.
3. Show is 45 minutes.
4. Average per hour per person amount in our area (above) is about $8 per hour, or $6 for 45 minutes.

Scenario 1: Group has no budget, but expect 150 people in attendance at this church social. Our manager can say to the prospect, "We'll that fine because our fee is only $2 per person
in attendance and we can do your performance for only $300.

Scenario 2: A local non-profit group has a budget of only $150, but the group may be a real membership opportunity for you chorus. In addition, the group has the potential of having other "potential clients" in their audience. To avoid any of those other "potential clients" from thinking your group performs for "whatever we can get", the chorus manager draws up a contract that calls for a payment of $300 by the group to your chorus. In addition, on the
day of the performance, your treasurer presents a donation to their group of $150 as support to another non-profit group. By doing this your fee REMAINS at $300 for anyone asking, but you get credit (for your tax return) of a donation nof $150 toward another non-profit group.

Scenario 3: Group has no budget but wants you for free (and let's say this group meets monthly). Your chorus manager can say, "Well, we do get a lot of requests to sing for no fee and we have to manage those. We can put your group in our "hat" and once a month we draw a group out of the hat and we perform for nothing. So if you want us to do that, we will let you know when we can
perform. (I usually look to do these freebies in the two months preceding our annual show that allows us a great opportunity to sell show tickets).

There is so much to consider when trying to determine the right price for your performance. It has been my experience in 38 years of singing, directing, producing shows, teaching marketing and studying barbershop groups, that we all too often sell ourselves short. If your chorus does an entertaining 1/2 hour show, you should determine - through research in your area - the price you are worth ... not necessarily what people are offering. I personally favor a written contract with deposits, etc., even on free jobs, just so the group and the chorus knows what is expected.