Rockstars Live Promotions Guide
Promotions Overview
Promotions are the only way to generate recurring Cash Flow Income in Rockstars Live. Generally, the income from your promotions will significantly exceed that earned from fighting or shows. If you want to succeed at the higher levels, it is essential that you understand how to maximize your income.
The income provided by promotions is earned every 50 (Pop Rocker) or 60 (Hard Rocker, Punk Rocker) minutes depending on your character class. This occurs whether or not you or actively playing. Upkeep costs are automatically deducted at the same time.
Return on Investment (ROI)
The key to maximizing your income from promotions is understanding the concept of ROI. If you view promotions as an investment of your Cash, then the ROI on that investment is equal to the income provided by that promotion divided by its current cost. This number is commonly expressed as a percentage and indicates the rate of return for that particular promotion. When choosing which promotion to buy, you should always choose the one that provides the highest available ROI in order to maximize your investment and income.
The cost of each type of promotion increases by 10% with each purchase, decreasing its ROI. This provides incentive to advance in level in order to unlock additional promotion types that provide a higher ROI.
Promotions Analysis
Rockstars Live offers a total of 11 types of promotions with a starting ROI of 2.5% to 0.5%. The highest income promotion (Record Company - 12,500) provides enough income to cover the upkeep for ~17 of the highest upkeep gear (Yamaha Nocturne Grand Keyboard - 700). Compared to other Storm 8 games, items are relatively affordable. However, it is still important to build up a large income stream if you want to max out on your gear and band members.
Strategic Recommendations
Promotions are steadily unlocked every few levels without a large gap in between. It may be tempting to level up quicker in order to take advantage of the higher income promotions. However, keep in mind that despite the higher income their initial ROI is much lower.
I recommend an ROI target of around 0.5-0.7% on your currently available promotions before unlocking higher level promotions. It will take some time, but allows you to have a large enough income stream to support gear upgrades.
Camping
Of course this depends upon each player's strategy and some player's take this to the extreme by "camping" at certain levels and continuing to build their income stream despite the rapidly declining ROI %. The objective is to build as large an income stream as possible so that the player is easily able to acquire any newly unlocked equipment and/or promotions.
To effectively utilize this strategy, it is important to drastically slow down your leveling by not attacking other players, completing practices or shows. Also, you should focus all of your equipment purchases on items with low upkeep and high defense values.
TIP: Keep your band size at 9 members until absolutely necessary (see Rockstars Live Battle Strategy Guide) and camp at levels 5,12,18.
Bank
Cash losses from fighting in Rockstars Live tend to be high relative to income. It may be worthwhile to bank your money despite the 10% service fee. Basically, if your total losses per hour average more than 10% of your income stream, then it makes more financial sense to use the bank.
Rockstars Live Spreadsheet
The Rockstars Live Spreadsheet contains all the information on available promotions and calculates ROI automatically for you along with purchase recommendations.
Rockstars Live promotions Table
The following is a list of all available promotions in Rockstars Live along with their costs, income, ROI, and level they become available:
| Promotion |
Level |
Income |
Initial Cost |
Initial ROI |
| My Space Profile |
1 |
20 |
1,200 |
2.5% |
| Music Flyer |
1 |
40 |
1,700 |
2.35% |
| Facebook Fan Page |
3 |
75 |
3,800 |
1.97% |
| Music Poster |
5 |
240 |
14,000 |
1.71% |
| T-Shirt |
8 |
700 |
50,000 |
1.4% |
| TV Commercial |
12 |
1,200 |
100,000 |
1.2% |
| Billboard |
18 |
2,000 |
200,000 |
1.0% |
| Music Demo |
25 |
2,700 |
330,000 |
0.81% |
| Recording Studio |
30 |
5,000 |
720,000 |
0.69% |
| Movie Song |
35 |
7,500 |
1,250,000 |
0.60% |
| Record Company |
40 |
12,500 |
2,500,000 |
0.50% |
