The artist offer: what goes on the paper

Terms, not totals

The agent is reading for five things: who, where, when, how much, on what terms. The offer states the deal — the guarantee, the percentage and its base, the scaling, comps and kills, the clauses — and it states them as terms, because terms are what the two of you are agreeing to. A projected gross-to-net at the stated scaling belongs on it, because it shows the agent your arithmetic. Your profit does not, and neither does a line promising what the artist will make: the artist’s cheque is settled from the real box office, not from a projection.

In Showforma the offer is the artist memo: the header, the deal points, the scaling, the projected waterfall and the terms. The internal P&L and any co-promoter statements are separate documents from the same record, each its own computation from the lines it is allowed to show — and an internal note is structurally unable to reach the offer.

The deal sentence

One line, in the words a promoter says out loud, and the same line on the card, the offer and the settlement. The shapes:

Flat $15K
$25K guarantee + 85/15 over $120K            (plus-backend: the split point is printed)
$25K vs. 85% of net after expenses           (versus: the base is named)
60% of the door, no guarantee                (door)
Four-wall · $8K rental                       (a door deal at 100%, with a fee)

A split point is printed in figures because it is a number the agent will check. A base is named because “85% of net” and “85% of net after expenses” are twenty-five thousand dollars apart on an ordinary Saturday.

What goes on the paper

Header           artist · venue and room · date · doors and show time · deal type
Deal points      the sentence · guarantee · percentage and base · split point · bonus · cap
Ticket scaling   each tier: count × price · comps · kills · gross potential
Waterfall        gross → facility fee → tax → ticket fees → NGBOR, at the stated scaling
Terms            billing · radius · cancellation and force majeure · insurance ·
                 production (provided by) · merchandise · recording · settlement timing ·
                 governing law
Expiry           "void after <date>" — one date, on the paper
Acceptance       countersign, or the response link and its QR

The clauses are a library, not boilerplate you cannot touch: each one is generated from the deal once, with the artist, the venue and the date in it, and after that the text is yours. Radius is off by default, because it is deal-specific; everything else is on.

“Not decided” is not “waived”. A clause generated from a term you have not set states the right and is silent on the split. Silence leaves the parties where they were; a waiver does not.

A worked example

Deal             $25,000 vs. 85% of net after expenses
Scaling          200 × $75.00 · 1,000 × $45.00 · 300 × $30.00     gross potential $69,000
Comps / kills    50 house · 50 production                            1,400 sellable
Documented       $30,000 show expenses, itemised on the paper
Bonus            none      Walk-out cap   none
Expires          void after one date, chosen when it is sent and printed on the paper
Respond          one link, one QR: accept, decline, or counter

At 1,800 sold that deal pays the artist $32,215 — the arithmetic is in the versus guide — and the offer does not say so. It says the terms that produce it, and lets the box office do the rest.

After it is sent

• It goes out on your letterhead — your mark, your legal entity, your contact block. A paying customer’s paper carries nothing of ours, because a vendor’s name on an offer to an agency costs you something real.
• It carries a response link and a QR, so an offer handed over on paper is still answerable. The agent accepts, declines or counters on a page with no account.
• A counter is a new version that states what moved. The link on an older version dies when a newer one is sent, never when one is merely drafted.
• The default send is download, then mark as sent, and it needs no setup. Emailing offers from inside the product is an add-on, off by default.