Splitting a gig fee fairly

A 3,000 EUR wedding fee lands in the account and within an hour there are 3 different ideas of what everyone is owed. The drummer drove the van, the leader spent 6 hours on the quote and the advance, the dep was promised "the usual", and nobody remembers what "the usual" is. This is the argument that ends bands, and it is entirely avoidable.

The fix is a written split rule that runs the same way for every gig, applied in a fixed order.

The order matters: expenses first

Before anyone is paid, the gig's direct costs come off the top. Not "we'll sort the fuel later"; now, from the gross fee:

• Travel: van hire or mileage at the band's agreed rate, tolls, parking.
• Accommodation, if the gig required it.
• Hired gear: extra PA, lighting, backline.
• Consumables tied to the gig: batteries, strings broken on the night, printing.
• Agency commission, if the gig came through one (10–20% is typical).
• Any song learned for the client on a paid basis, if a member did the arranging.

What is left is the net fee, and the net fee is what gets split. Bands that split the gross and then argue about who pays the van have the same argument every month.

Worked example: gross 3,000 EUR. Van 140, tolls 30, agency 0, extra lights hire 90. Net 2,740.

Then the band's fixed costs

Many bands take a percentage of every net fee into a band fund before the split: 5–10% is typical. It pays for insurance, the website, software, rehearsal space, gear repairs and the year-end buffer. Members see it as a deduction the first month and as the reason nobody has to chip in for the new PA by the third.

From the example: 10% of 2,740 = 274 to the band fund. Split pool: 2,466.

Then roles that cost real time

Some jobs on a gig are extra work, and paying for them is fairer than expecting goodwill. Common role fees, taken from the pool before the equal split:

• Leader / admin fee: 100–300 EUR per gig, or 10–15% of net, for quoting, contract, advance, client calls, setlist, invoice, chasing. This is the one most bands under-pay and then wonder why the leader burns out. See what a band leader actually does.
• Driver: 50–100 EUR, or per-hour at the band's rate for driving time beyond what everyone else travels.
• Sound / PA owner: 50–150 EUR per gig for bringing, setting up and running the PA. If the band owns the PA, this drops to a smaller "engineer" fee for the person mixing.
• Musical director for a specific arrangement job (charts for a client's first dance): a fixed 50–150 EUR per song.

From the example: leader 200, driver 60, PA owner 100. Pool for equal split: 2,106.

The equal split (and per-gig heads)

Now divide by the number of musicians on the gig. Five on stage: 421.20 EUR each. The leader also gets their equal share, so their total for the day is 621.20; the driver 481.20; the PA owner 521.20; the other two 421.20.

Everyone can see why every number is what it is, and none of the extras is more than 50% of a share. That is the test for a fair split: no one's extra looks like a second salary, and every extra is a job someone else could take if they wanted the money.

Deps

A dep is paid a fixed fee, agreed before the gig, regardless of what the members get. Common rules:

• The dep fee equals the equal share, rounded up to a clean number (450 in the example).
• Or a flat dep rate the band publishes: 300 for a local bar, 450 for a wedding, 550 for a full-day corporate.
• Never lower than the members' share unless the dep asked for a smaller role (fewer sets, no soundcheck).
• Paid within 7 days of the gig, by transfer, without being asked.

The member who was replaced gets nothing for that gig, unless the band's agreement says otherwise (some bands pay an absent member a small percentage if they arranged the dep and briefed them). Write that rule down before it is needed; see deps and substitute musicians.

A leader premium people accept

The two ways leader pay goes wrong: the leader takes nothing and quietly resents it, or the leader takes an unexplained slice and the band quietly resents that. The version that survives:

• A fixed fee per gig for the admin work, published to the whole band.
• Optionally a percentage on gigs the leader sourced without an agency (5–10% of net), because sales is work.
• The band name owned as per the band agreement, which may carry its own value; see the band agreement.

Present it as "the admin job pays X; anyone who wants to do the admin job can have it". Most people will decline the job and stop questioning the fee.

Transparency: the non-negotiable

Every gig gets a one-line breakdown visible to every member, within a week of payment: gross, expenses, fund, roles, share, who was paid what. A shared spreadsheet or a message in the band's workspace is enough. Bands that do this never have the "what happened to the money" conversation, because the answer is always already there. Bands that do not eventually have it in the worst possible way.

Also publish the rules once, in the agreement, and change them only at a band meeting. A split rule that changes per gig is not a rule.

Alternatives for different bands

The method above is the mainstream. Variants for different situations are covered in splitting money in a band: equal-only for co-operative bands, salaried side musicians for a leader-owned act, session rates for horns, or a points system for bands where members do very different amounts.

Do this today

1. Write the order: expenses, fund percentage, role fees, equal split. Put numbers on each.
2. Set the dep rates for your 3 main gig types.
3. Run your last 3 gigs through the rule and see if anyone would have been paid differently. If yes, talk about it now, not after the next gig.
4. Decide where the per-gig breakdown will be posted and by whom.

Where expert.band helps

The gig in expert.band holds the accepted quote, the members confirmed for the date (deps join by invitation link, free), and the gig notes, so the gross, the people and the extras are in one place when you do the breakdown. Post each gig's numbers in its notes rather than in a chat that scrolls away, and keep the split rule itself in the band agreement where every member can read it.