The freshly engaged M.I.A. spent 30 minutes Sunday night entertaining the crowd at an afterparty for the MTV Movie Awards, and during her set she let drop that she was getting paid $100,000 for the appearance. (”I’m going to use it to build schools in Liberia,” she told the crowd, which included such Perez-ready names as Rumer Willis. “It costs $2,000 $52,000 to build a school for 1,000.”) She’s not alone in getting big cash by playing for the elite: earlier Sunday, the Times of London theorized that big-money private concerts are to this year what big-ticket reunion shows were to 2007: A way to make a large payday in the face of declining record sales, and not just for “legacy” acts like Whitney Houston who can show up and run through their catalog. Current groups and acts that fall under the ever-more-meaningless rubric of “indie” are also cashing in by playing backyards and hotel ballrooms.
As the private-party circuit has become a serious source of income for acts, the stigma attached to it has all but evaporated. Sugababes perform at up to 15 such events a year, and their manager, Mark Hargreaves, says the girls consider it a compliment to be asked. “The huge amount of money paid is just proof of how popular Sugababes are,” Hargreaves says. “For cool indie bands, it’s not particularly credible, but for pop groups, it is no longer frowned upon.”
Typically, Sugababes play a 30-to 45-minute set of their greatest hits, either live to digital audio tape or, for a larger fee, with a full band. “Our production team visit the site in advance to advise the client on what is possible at the venue,” explains Hargreaves. “These shows are not in typical event halls. They could be in hotel function rooms, marquees or people’s own homes. Some go to great lengths to recreate a live venue - I have seen amazing stages built in vast back gardens and nightclubs erected in the grounds of stately homes. A place like that is a pleasure to play.” He won’t confirm what the girls have been paid for particular gigs, but their fees are estimated to vary between £100,000 and £250,000. Girls Aloud can also expect £250,000.
Included in the fee is an expectation that artists will “mix’n'mingle” - chat to the hosts and their VIP guests, pose for photos and sign autographs. What partygoers can’t do, however, is discuss the party with the press or sell the pictures on. “Guests have to sign a confidentiality contract,” says Hargreaves. “That is standard with every act. It’s not that anything particularly exciting happens, it’s just good business sense to control our own PR.”
Sugababes have cashed in on the fact that the type of artists booked for private parties is changing. In the past, it was middle-aged bankers and financiers shelling out for the now conservative stars of their youth, but now it’s dotcom millionaires, footballers and Russian oligarchs opting for edgier entertainers. Last month, Roman Abramovich shelled out £185,000 each for Mercury prizewinners Klaxons and sexy Brazilians CSS to perform at his daughter’s birthday. In February, a Californian computer-games tycoon paid £15,000 for an exclusive set in Pete Doherty’s own, blood-spattered home. Mind you, the latter may have been miffed to hear that, a few weeks earlier, Doherty had accepted £100 from a regular dad to play at his daughter’s birthday party.
Well, I guess the Californian was paying for the “ambiance” in that case. But the confidentiality contract is what interests me the most about these arrangements–given that every publicly attended show winds up on YouTube or Flickr in some form these days, perhaps the idea of not having a performance disseminated far and wide is worth as much to some entertainers as £185,000. (Or half that, at least.)
Why music stars are playing private parties [Times Online via BV]
M.I.A. gets paid and tells at MTV Movie Awards afterparty [Soundboard]
I wonder if M.I.A. put her paychecks from those heinous Marc Jacobs ads to good use, too. (Seriously, I wonder - I’m still a little stuck on the whole “$3,000 handbag vs. Pull Up the People, Pull Up the Poor” thing).
I remember in the mid to late ’90s when Bob Dylan and his son Jakob’s band, the Wallflowers, were hired to play the same corporate gig. MTV News sent a crew out to interview some of the attendees of the event, and a few actually said they were Wallflowers fans but weren’t familiar with Bob Dylan.
I wonder how much money she got when she played here in SF and made everyone wait for-effing-ever and then graced us all with a whopping 20 minutes worth of a crappy show.
@Peg Entwistle: I wonder, too. Of course, I have my own prejudices, and I’m also of the opinion that the greatest thing MIA ever did was inspire this: [ie]
whatever. i say good for these artists. i’m not going to pretend that if i loved doing music/art/etc that i’d be above someone paying me oodles of money for an appearance that a small number of people would see, and i’d most likely forget that i’d done in about a month (if that).
this is much ado about nothing.
@TheRunningboard7: I think you’re thinking of someone like Shabba Ranks, not MIA
@Cos: Is not MIA? I thought this is what did it. But maybe that’s not MIA. In which case, I cannot think of much else I’m fond of… The paper planes song is catchy…
yeah, i remember hearing that girl talk/dan deacon played a party for hugh hefner’s kid recently…i can’t say i blame any of these artists for taking advantage - there’s certainly not too many “patrons of the arts” in the pop/rock world right about now.
I will gladly offer my services to a corporate party for a cool ‘hundo.
My services include sitting in the corner, making fun of partygoers and passersby.
MIA has only sold 214,000 records for Interscope, and yet she gets $100k to play one party. And the record label doesn’t see a dime of it.
I used to think it was a mistake for indie artists to get in bed with majors, but I’m now starting to think that majors are just doing terrible business by signing acts like MIA. She’ll never sell that many albums, but she’ll take the advance to go on a safari and then come back to the States for one phoned-in Timbaland track, clean up on touring, and do Mark Jacobs ads. Not a bad hustle.
Why am I not surprised to learn that Doherty would accept $200 to play one of these private shows?
Why does this remind me of the video for “Dre Day” featuring rapper “Sleazy-E” and his “Will Rap For Food” sign?
MIA? Pete Doherty? Feh. I’m getting the Saw Lady to play MY upcoming BBQ.
[www.sawlady.com]
As long as the California computer-games tycoon wasn’t throwing a Dora the Explorer-themed birthday soiree in Doherty’s needle park.
blog.newsok.com/staticblog
Well Doherty used to put on shows IN HIS OWN HOUSE to scrap together money, so it’s unsurprising he should be involved in such things.
But this isn’t really new, and I always wish it would get more coverage. Bands like Aerosmith and RHCP and the like have been doing corporate retreats and events for years, pulling in several hundreds of thousands a pop, rocking out with MBAs, not using the money to build schools, etc.
Plus more recently the whole sweet sixteen racket has been on full view. I mean, Ja Rule needs to play somewhere.
Well, the article says that the promoter can’t Sell pictures. I think they’re more worried about someone getting paid by the tabloids as a Jr. Pap then they are about fans putting pictures up on Flickr. But, I could be wrong. I probably can’t even afford a look at the contract.
@Silverfuture: guests have to sign a confidentiality agreement, too, which i think would make flickr photos (which could turn into jr-pap pics very easily!) a no no.
@jetsetjunta: Yep, yep, yep. I was thinking this same thing. My father-in-law is in a business where they often get these type of private concerts and I’ve been surprised (and yet often times not) at the names he’s mentioned.
The best part about it is, he usually couldn’t care less. He’d rather see Jersey Boys again. LOL
@Clevertrousers: I’m hiring the Saw Lady and Lady Saw for a once-in-a-lifetime dancehall/carpentry concert event!
I saw one of my favorite bands (Old 97’s) play a private party a few years back. It was a corporate party and my brother happened to work in the same building and told me about it. Outside of the largely indifferent crowd, it was a great show, because of one thing: FREE BOOZE.
Your favorite band + free beer is always a great combination.