Back in December, we shared a detailed breakdown of how money works at a Sofar show, and hinted at some of the improvements for artists we were starting on this year. We received countless responses from artists in our community, and want to say thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts—it’s helped refine our changes and will guide our work going forward.

We have some exciting announcements to share, including a new artist website and dashboard, new payment levels for our standard shows, an improved tool to request bookings, and ways to connect with your fellow Sofar artists.

New features

A Sofar artist dashboard

A lot of artists have asked for a better way to manage their profiles, see show booking requests and access event details. We’ve rolled out the beginnings of a brand new artist dashboard to do all that, with lots more to come soon. We’re testing the beta version with a small group of artists now, and it will be available to everyone in March.

Improved booking tool

Last year, 2,000 artists did tours with Sofar. In the new artist dashboard, we’re working to make it easier to book tour dates, whether that means filling in an open Monday night, using Sofar to promote another gig or setting up an entire tour of Sofar shows.

Connecting with other artists

So many artists have told us how important it is for them to meet the other performers at Sofar shows, and have shared incredible stories about what these connections have led to. With the 10,000 shows we put on every year, those collaborations are already happening every night, all over the world. In the new artist dashboard, they’ll be able to find other Sofar artists in their city, and see the artists they’ve played with at past Sofar shows to help them stay in touch.

Turning more listeners into fans

We’ve added a custom ‘Support this artist’ button in the email sent to audience members after the show. This allows artists to include an additional link so that they have the freedom to direct fans to wherever they feel supports them best. That could be buying their merch, supporting them on Patreon or Bandcamp, or virtually anything else.

Resources for new artists

There’s now an improved artist-focused section on our website with helpful information about Sofar and how to get the most out of shows.

Increased artist compensation

As we shared in December, Sofar’s goal is to move toward an average net profit split of 70/30 in favor of the artist for standard shows in ticketed cities. To that end, starting today, we’ll begin rolling out three payment levels for shows with higher ticket sales. We estimate this increase will impact around 50% of artists, and we’ll keep evaluating our progress throughout the year. Read more about the details here.

We’re just getting started and have a long list of new features we’re working on, so we always appreciate hearing your feedback and ideas. Artists can always reach out to us by emailing artists@sofarsounds.com—we’d love to hear from you!

Thanks again to all of the Sofar artists in our community who are growing with us, we wouldn’t exist without you.