When Exposure Is Worth Something
Exposure has value when it connects you to a specific audience, buyer, asset, or opportunity you can reasonably use.
Name the exposure
A televised set, strong festival showcase, high-quality filmed opening slot, or appearance before a large audience that fits your act may create measurable downstream value.
'Lots of people will be there' is not a plan.
Exposure is valuable when you can describe the mechanism.
When Exposure Is Worth Nothing
Exposure is worthless when it is vague, nontransferable, or used to avoid paying for work that has normal market value.
Watch empty promises
Being told 'important people might be there' without names, role, or history is not a substitute for compensation.
Ask what actually happened for prior performers.
Vague exposure is not a currency.
Tour Profit vs Tour Gross
Gross is the impressive number. Profit is the number that can pay your life.
Separate revenue from profit
Ticket gross may include money owed to the venue, platform, taxes, promoter, opener, staff, advertising, and production.
Never announce gross to yourself as income.
Gross tells you how big the transaction was; profit tells you whether the business worked.
Knowing When a Gig Loses Money
A gig can look successful onstage and lose money financially.
Calculate before accepting
Guarantee minus fuel, hotel, food, parking, tolls, and time may reveal a negative trip before you leave.
A strategic loss can still be intentional, but it should not be accidental.
Know when you are investing and when you are simply losing.
