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PLSN Editor Justin Lang

How Much Should You Charge?

One of the difficulties of life as a freelancer is figuring out how much to charge for your services. They say time is money, but they don’t tell you how much money it’s worth.

The main stage for Ultra Music Festival 2013 was made from 176 smaller pyramids

Ultra Music Festival 2013 Draws 330,000 to Miami

With more than 200 DJs and other artists on seven stages over two three-day weekends (March 15-17 and 22-24), book-ending (and dwarfing) the annual Winter Music Conference from which it sprang in 1999, the 15th annual Ultra Music Festival smashed its own impressive records for growth by drawing some 330,000 revelers to Miami’s Bayfront Park, doubling 2012’s 165,000 attendee count.

Kinky Boots production photo by Matthew Murphy

Kinky Boots on Broadway

One of the most buzz-worthy Broadway shows of the spring season is Kinky Boots, the pop musical from composer/lyricist Cyndi Lauper and writer Harvey Fierstein. Adapted from the 2005 British film of the same name, which was itself inspired by real-life events, it tells the tale of Charlie Price, an aimless twentysomething who moves to London with his success-driven girlfriend Nicola, only to be summoned back to his hometown of Northampton after his father passes away. With the family shoe business deteriorating, Charlie reluctantly takes over to try to save jobs and the company. A chance encounter with a drag queen named Lola inspires him to specialize in kinky boots for cross-dressing men who need strong high heels, but at first it’s a hard sell to his employees, some of whom will need to accept Lola as the designer and accept their change of direction. It’s a story about overcoming prejudice and sometimes embracing the outrageous.

Miranda Lambert tour photo by Ben Dickmann

Miranda Lambert “Locked & Reloaded” Tour

For Miranda Lambert, “it’s all about taking this rock persona of hers and running with it,” says LD Chris Lisle of the Nashville star’s current Locked and Reloaded tour with Dierks Bentley, a sequel of sorts to the Lambert/Bentley Locked and Loaded co-headlining tour of 2006/2007. “I tell everyone she’s a rock star,” he says. “That little five foot four gal just explodes on stage, making her fun to light.”

Marilyn Manson tour photo by Steve Jennings

Marilyn Manson “Hey Cruel World” Tour

Brian Hugh Warner, the artist behind both the man and the band known as Marilyn Manson, has crafted a daunting persona, and the band’s “Hey Cruel World” tour schedule, interspersed with the “Twins of Evil” co-headlining trek with Rob Zombie last fall, was also clearly not for the faint of heart, either. Launched just prior to, and continuing after, the May 1, 2012  release of Manson’s Born Villain album, the tour legs included Australia (six shows in February and March), Asia (five shows in Japan and Taiwan in March) the U.S. (18 shows in April and May) and Europe (24 shows in 24 cities, May-July).