Granted I'm not a DJ but a jazz musician. I think there's a slight premium for "out of town" acts compared to local acts of possibly equal quality. It could simply be due to scarcity. If a certain act is only in town for one night, then it's your only chance to see them, whereas you can put off seeing a local band for a while.
> I think there's a slight premium for "out of town" acts
In the EDM world, it can often be much more than a slight premium. Ever since streaming took over music sales, performance fees have become the key source of income for most artists.
That's a good point. In fact, I'm not a full time musician, but performing is my only source of musical income. I've never bothered with trying to make money from recordings.
I do know some indie artists who make a bit of extra money at performances selling CDs to people who still buy them. I think it takes advantage of the immediacy of the moment, and the fact that a lot of people are actually not savvy about finding stuff online.
