Last fall, R&B singer October London performed “Back to Your Place.” Jimmy Kimmel Live! with an introduction by Snoop Dogg and a seven-piece band that includes harp and fiddle players. In other words, the show didn't come cheap — and probably a lot more expensive than the few thousand dollars late-night show guests typically get under union rules.
According to the London manager, Adrian L. Miller, the performance, which has so far racked up 281,000 views on YouTube, was well worth it. London is more stripped down GMA3 The show in February had even more tangible benefits, boosting ticket sales for the singer's show at Brooklyn Steel later that night by 100. “It's nothing,” says Miller. “It's good to have the logos and exposure through TV.”
Still, Miller admits that the advertising benefits of late-night TV shows aren't as great as they were in the 2000s. Jay Leno and David Letterman often drew 4 million to 6 million viewers a night, compared to about 1.5 million to 3 million viewers called today's top talk shows. Plus, he says, “A lot of an artist's audience isn't on television. They don't watch these shows.”
For many shows, especially emerging artists looking for viral moments, the return on investment for late-night and daytime talk shows has become too small to be effective. “They have, like, 2 million viewers of these shows, and that's what we get in the daily posts on TikTok,” he says Ethan Curtismanager of singer-songwriter JVKE, who played The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2022. “It's an energy drain. We travel and train for the show and we do it in one take. It's not worth it for every song.”
And while audiences are shrinking, the cost of creating a memorable TV show is very high. Another of Miller's clients, singer-rapper Anderson .Paak, spent “out of pocket, almost six figures,” he says, for a 2017 Helen appearance. “Everybody wants a creative director now, and the stylist, hair and makeup,” says a source at the big company. According to label and management sources, expenses for talk-show performances range from $150,000 to $225,000 — or as much as $700,000 for a potential career Saturday night live opportunity.
Targeted talk shows sometimes redeem the cost. When JVKE played “Golden Hour”. They fall under at the end of 2022, his team wanted to “elevate him from a TikTok artist to a 'real artist,'” says Curtis. “Then the evening show served a purpose: 'Let's have an example of JVKE that exists outside of TikTok.' We cut the video, reposted it on social media.” (by JVKE They fall under Performance is no longer available on his socials, but a Tonight show The YouTube video of him “playing my Roots song” beforehand has 358,000 views.)
“Most bands come with the same crew and backline as if they were putting on a show. They ask the record label to pay for it and [labels] I don't want to,” he says Chris Gentrywho managed Phoenix in 2009 when the band SNL The appearance helped turn his album around Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in a crash.
In an analysis of 458 artists' appearances on top talk shows such as Kimmel, They fall under, Helen, SNL and The Late Late Show with James Corden, music data analyst Chartmetric found that artists' monthly Spotify listeners averaged 1.78% more the week after the show. Some artists' signature performances have more impact: BTS at SNL in 2019 and Bartees Strange Kimmel in 2022 both increased their monthly listeners on Spotify by almost 85%.
Other talk shows are just being taped. Chartmetric reports that 192 artists experienced declines in monthly Spotify listeners following their concerts. of London Kimmel The performance in October had little impact on his Spotify metrics. “We've had these conversations for a long time: Late night doesn't move the needle,” says the major label source, who nevertheless remains an advocate of such appearances because “Jimmy Fallon or NBC is helping to spread a piece of digital content in an age where we're constantly trying to cut through the noise.”
While Ken Weinstein, a veteran publicist whose label, Big Hassle, represents Phish, Jack White, the Pretenders and many others, acknowledges that “record labels are definitely more careful about how they spend money,” adding that prominent talk shows show can have advertising benefits too. beyond the initial television appearances. “Honestly, the look itself is as valuable as ever,” he says. “Only in a few cases are there really giant sales increases from a particular TV appearance — but the conversation it starts is still very relevant, very powerful.”
Petros Katsiswho manages Bush, booked frontman Gavin Rossdale They fall under in January; one Tonight show The Instagram clip of “Glycerine” garnered 344,000 views and many media outlets covered the performance. “It's not really about the what They fall underHis numbers are now,” says Katsis. “It really starts with what you decide to do with the opportunity. All of these things become much more valuable than that initial appearance.”
“Everything is more expensive, so we have to do it at the right time and be part of a bigger plan,” he says Diana Millersupervising producer for The reason, which recently shut down Bush and Rachel Platten, adding that shows often negotiate with artists to pay a portion of their expenses in addition to the low thousands of dollars in union rates they pay musicians to perform. “How much would four minutes be for a commercial on this show? You can't just market to your own fan base. You can't assume Ariana Grande's fans know she has new music.”
Some artists have taken it upon themselves to economize. Lemon Twigs, a band from Long Island, played They fall under in late January with a “very stripped backline” and “almost no money,” according to Gentry, who manages the group. “We actually did it for the cost of flying the drummer in from Los Angeles,” he says. “What's interesting right now They fall under it's how social media plays — 14 million on Instagram, 15 million on TikTok. It's almost like you're getting more now.”
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024 issue Advertising sign.
