According to Pallaso, the price of an ordinary ticket tells only part of the financial story behind a concert, with artists able to make significant returns through premium tables, sponsorships and the networks they have built around them.
The singer explained that money collected from regular ticket sales is often consumed by the cost of putting on the show, including payments to various service providers and statutory obligations such as taxes to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
As a result, the gate collections should not always be viewed as the artist’s profit.
Instead, Pallaso believes artists should think beyond the ordinary entrance ticket and take advantage of the people and businesses within their networks.
He particularly highlighted the sale of premium tables to friends, supporters, business associates and other people connected to the artist.
“Your social network is your social net-worth. If a table is Shs5 million and I sell about 10 of them, that’s Shs50 million,” Pallaso said.
His argument offers a different perspective on Uganda’s often heated debate over concert ticket prices, where artists can face criticism when they charge relatively low entrance fees or are accused of undervaluing their shows.
For Pallaso, however, an affordable gate fee can be a deliberate strategy to bring more people into the venue while premium experiences and commercial partnerships generate higher-value income.
An artist could, for example, keep the general admission fee accessible to attract a large audience, while reserving premium spaces for guests willing to spend significantly more.
Sponsorships can then provide another layer of revenue, allowing the artist to build a business model around the entire event rather than depending solely on ticket sales.
The approach also places greater emphasis on an artist’s personal brand and relationships. An artist with a strong network of supporters and business contacts can potentially turn those relationships into revenue through table sales, partnerships and other premium offerings.
For Pallaso, therefore, the question should not simply be how much an artist charges at the gate, but how effectively the entire concert is structured to generate income.
In that model, a Shs20,000 or Shs30,000 ticket can be less about the final profit and more about getting people through the gates—while the bigger returns come from what happens around the ticket.
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