Pricing advice - Dance Recital

[Vince Pachiano]

I've been shooting this one Dance Studio for about 5 years.
The studio is comprised of 2 groups:
Competition dancers who pay a lot of money to dance, and are in 5 or more dances.
Recreational dancers who only dance Tap, Ballet, Jazz and/or Hip-Hop

Their recital is about 90 dances divided into 3 sections.
My workflow is to create a 3 different DVD, one for each of the 3 sections
My pricing has been: $20 per DVD, or $55 for all 3.

Some of the younger dancers only dance 2 or 3 dances, but
to get all of their child's dances, they need to pay either $20 or $40.
I've always marketed the fact that many of the younger dancers LOVE seeing the more experienced
dancers in the video, and hence it made sense to buy the entire Disc

This year, I am getting inquiries from parents.
They don't want to buy a full disc and pay $20 or $40 to get their children's dance.
I'm considering offering an option to allow the parents to just buy their child's dance.
$5 a dance, minimum of 2 dances
Logistically, it's a little more complicated, but I think I can get a handle on that.
Create a new project grab the selected dances, throw them on the time line, render, burn.
At this price, there would be no menu, just a simple movie on a sparsely printed DVD, in a paper sleeve.

Am I crazy? Am I walking away from a $20 sale to make a $10 sale, or am I gaining a $10 sale?
I looked at last year's sales. 50%-$20, 10%-$40, and 40%-$55

[Mike Watson]

I would do $20 per kid. For that $20 we give you all the dances your kid was in via a download link. Doesn't matter if they were in 1 or 3 or 5. For another $5 we'll burn those same dances to a DVD. You come pick that DVD up. For another $5 we will mail that DVD to you.

IMHO there is no profit in doing less than $20/unit, and to me it seems punitive to charge an additional $20 because it was in a different part of the show. I get it with the DVD, it made sense, but with download link not so much so.

[Edward Carlson]

I actually worked for two different dance shows doing this exact thing. At one company, we charged $30 for the first video, $15 for each additional one. The other company charges $40 per video. That is for one routine, not the entire show.

The videos were only $15/ea if they were on a USB (MP4 H.264 file) instead of on a DVD. I actually liked the USBs more because it was less work for me to fulfill the orders. We also sold the videos after the show on our website with a download link.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Vince you have it backwards. Personalized dvds should cost more not less than the standard dvd. The parents may not be looking to save money they 're asking you to provide a service they want.

[Andrew Smith]

My gut reaction is to not futz around for a mere $5. You seriously don't want to know about it.

Just leave it as $20 discs and it can be the only option.

Andrew

[Kyle Root]

I have debated this in my head every year.

This year I'm doing 4 recitals for 4 different studios and have priced each one (entire show) at $30.00.

Logistically, it's easier for me because everyone will get the same thing and I don't have to worry about trying to do each individual dance.

It's tricky delivering digital files for sure.

Say one kid has a performance with 10 dancers. Who's to say that parent A buys that show digitally for $5, and then shares it with other parents in that group? You've just lost a lot of money. So if anything, you need to be charging a premium for individual dances - but at that point you're going to have angry parents and still likely face the same dilemma.

And if you don't think sharing among parents goes on at the dance studio.... it does. This is my 12th year and I know all the stories that go on. Especially at some of the larger ones I've done with 350 kids.

[Kyle Root]

Another thing I'm curious about is the effect of phones and tablets. At the first one I shot a couple weeks ago "tons" of parents holding up their phones and iPads taking video of the performances.

It was a bigger show, about 2.5 hours long, with around 150 dancers, and I sold like 35 copies.

Curious to see how the rest go.

The other idea I've toyed with is having the studio itself add a $10 fee to every kids recital costs and then have them pay me that $10 * 150 kids, for example... and then every kid gets a link to download the dance(s) ... and I would still offer $30 DVDs on top of that for those who wanted them of the whole show.

[Andrew Smith]

And if you don't think sharing among parents goes on at the dance studio.... it does. This is my 12th year and I know all the stories that go on. Especially at some of the larger ones I've done with 350 kids.

A friend of mine who also does video told me of an instance where she was manning the orders table and the parents were openly discussing who would make copies for the others etc ... whilst they were lining up at the table. She just couldn't believe it.

The other idea I've toyed with is having the studio itself add a $10 fee to every kids recital costs and then have them pay me that $10 * 150 kids, for example... and then every kid gets a link to download the dance(s) ... and I would still offer $30 DVDs on top of that for those who wanted them of the whole show.

This is the best idea yet, and others do it as well. You'll be busy enough shooting the show and won't want to be concerned about chastising parents with their iPads. Let the organisers have some skin in the game and the onus can be on them to discourage this behaviour. Furthermore, the cost of the recording can be included in the price of each competitor entry ... so it's even easier for you.

Andrew