Private Parties The Newest Way For Musicians To Make Up Lost CD-Sale Revenue

noah | June 3, 2008 9:30 am

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]