Paying the Band: Door Deals, Guarantees and Settlement

The money trouble in small rooms is almost never about the amount. It is about ambiguity: nobody said which deal applied, nobody said what came off the top, nobody counted, and the conversation that should have happened in an email three weeks ago happens at the bar at midnight with a tired drummer. A room that pays clearly — the same way, every night, with a sheet — gets offered the acts that other rooms do not, because musicians tell each other which rooms are honest, and that list is short.

This page is the venue's side of the question bands ask most, How Much Do Bands Get Paid?. Read that one too; it is what the act across the table has read.

Which Deal for Which Act

At a Glance

Structure	Who carries the risk	Offer it when
Door deal — a percentage of the cover or ticket revenue	The act	Local original acts, unproven draw, weeknights
Guarantee — a fixed fee whatever the attendance	The room	Proven draw, function and cover bands, touring acts with a history
Guarantee versus door — the act takes the larger of a floor and a percentage	Shared	An act you believe in whose draw you cannot yet prove
Support fee — flat and modest	The room, lightly	Openers on a bill the headliner is drawing
Hire or bar guarantee — the act rents the room	The act, as promoter	Album releases and self-promoted nights; see Putting On Your Own Show

Three principles sit under the table. Risk follows evidence: the act with a proven draw gets the guarantee, the unknown gets the door, and the one in between gets the versus deal, which is the fairest structure in the business and underused only because rooms forget to name it. The deal should fit the night: a Tuesday door deal with a low cover is a development slot, and both sides should know that is what it is. And never charge an act to play — no slot fees, no ticket pre-purchase, no "promotion package". Pay-to-play is no deal at all, only the fastest way for a room to lose its reputation, and the scene will know within a week.

Say What Comes Off the Top

Deducting the sound engineer, the door staff, ticketing fees or a promoter's share from the gross is normal. Deducting them without having said so is where the arguments start. "Eighty per cent of the door" is not a deal until the sentence continues: after what, and of what. Write the whole thing in the offer — "80% of the door after $120 for sound; the room keeps the bar; cover is $10" — and the settlement becomes arithmetic rather than negotiation.

On a multi-act bill, decide how the net splits between the acts and tell every act before the night, or let the headliner propose a split and confirm it to everyone. The acts should never be learning the split from each other at the merch table. On merch, a cut is unusual at bars and common at larger rooms; if you take one, say so in the offer and earn it — a lit, staffed table in the room's traffic, not a corner by the toilets.

Counting the Door

The count is a number both sides can see. A clicker and a sheet at the door; a float that is counted before doors and after; stamps or wristbands so re-entries are not double-counted; comps and the guest list agreed in advance, by number, with the act. If a band member wants to stand near the door and watch the count, that is normal and not an accusation — the honest rooms welcome it, because it is the band's evidence that they were paid right. On ticketed shows the ticketing report is the count, and the settlement waits for it; say when that will be, because a touring act needs to know if the money arrives tonight or on Thursday.

The Settlement

Settlement is the five minutes after the last song in which the night becomes a number, and it is the five minutes most rooms improvise. Do it on a sheet, the same sheet every night.

Line	Fill in
Door count (or tickets sold)	______
Cover / ticket price	______
Gross door	______
Agreed deductions (sound, door, ticketing — as written in the offer)	______
Net door	______
Act's share — percentage, guarantee, or the greater of the two	______
Split between acts (if agreed)	______
Merch cut (if agreed)	______
Paid by — cash / transfer / invoice — and when	______
Signed, both sides	____

Pay on the night when you can. Cash at close with a signed sheet, or a transfer before the van leaves the car park, is what a touring band with fuel to buy needs, and the rooms that do it are the ones bands route back through. If you pay by invoice, say the terms in the offer — "invoice, paid within seven days" — and keep them. Keep a copy of every sheet: it is your bookkeeping, your answer to the tax authority, and after a year it is a record of which deals worked in your room.

The Money the Room Owes Elsewhere

A room that hosts music needs a licence from the organisation that collects for songwriters — PRS for Music in the UK, SOCAN in Canada, one of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC in the United States, and their counterparts elsewhere. The fee follows the room's size and how often it uses music, and it is a cost of doing business rather than an option; the full picture, with insurance and noise, is in The Paperwork. What makes it worth mentioning here is where the money goes: those licence fees are what pay the songwriters who played your room, but only if the performances are reported. Ask acts for a setlist, or tell them to report their own through their society's portal. It costs the room nothing and it is the difference between a licence fee that reaches the band on your stage and one that does not.

Worth Knowing on the Way Out

• Risk follows evidence — door for the unknown, guarantee for the proven, versus for the act in between.
• Name the deductions in the offer — "of what, after what" turns settlement into arithmetic.
• The count is visible — clicker, sheet, float, and a bandmate by the door is normal.
• Same sheet every night — gross, deductions, net, share, paid how and when, two signatures.
• Pay on the night — the rooms that do are the rooms bands come back to.