Looking for a little #MondayMotivation? We’re pulling out past stories that are still just as relevant today. Here’s a pearl from Jim: Sometimes People Prefer to Pay More. At LA Stage Day in 2014, I talked about Revenue Per Seat and the potential dangers in managing by Average Ticket Price. We also had time to open the discussion up to any and all questions about pricing, and there’s one I’d like to share. If your mission (this mostly applies to non-profits) includes accessibility, how do you...

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In his post How to Do Pay-What-You-Want Better, Jim shared an idea that uses a pay-what-you-want structure, but does it in a way that might be beneficial in the short and long term. He wrote: "Think of it as something like a reverse Kickstarter." You can read more about the details of his idea here. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, a few theaters are trying unusual pricing schemes: pay what you wish ... after the show. Their goals: to entice...

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Live entertainment and arts organizations sometimes do “pay-what-you-want” performances, where ticket buyers can decide how much (if anything) they want to pay to see a show. As a marketer and someone who knows a lot about the industry, I’ve never been a big fan of this tactic. Most of the time, it’s either a cop-out on the question of actually figuring out pricing to achieve the organization’s goals, or it’s a half-assed attempt to create “accessibility,” which can be better...

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Everybody loves entertainment. Music, movies, sports, comedy, theater, books or whatever, people get excited about it like almost nothing else. So everybody, even people who don’t consider themselves “cultural,” places value on artists like writers, actors, musicians, and the many, many other kinds of people that bring us the things that entertain us. The conundrum we’re facing right now as a society is that it’s harder than in the past to get paid to do these things. Via Howard Sherman’s...

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The NBA is experiencing hiccups with the launch of its pay-for-streaming service, but in time they’ll be resolved. Pretty soon, all the major sports will be available for streaming, and people will be paying for the privilege. This will make it even more conspicuous that non-sports live entertainment is on the sidelines. Streaming earns you currency of two kinds: actual currency, as in money; and the currency of people’s attention. If you’ve only got their attention while the patron is attending...

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