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by Donald S. Passman
If you have a record and it's beginning to make some noise,
you can get fees in the range of $250 to $1500. per night,
either from clubs or opening slots. But until you get to that
point, your deals look very different. They look like this:
Pre-Sells
It may surprise you (but then again, it may not) to hear that
many clubs now charge for the privilege of playing in them.
Thus, rather than give you the money to entertain the throngs,
these clubs become fancy places to "showcase" your talents
and invite industry executives and relatives, etc., to see
you perform.
The way it's done is the club sells you 125 tickets or so,
for about $350 to $500. You can then give away the tickets
to key people, or, if you're hot enough, sell them at a markup
and make a profit. This practice is knows as a Pre-Sell,
because the club sells its tickets in advance.
While we're on the subject of pay-to-play, you should know
that there's a small trend toward major stars requiring opening
acts on their tours to pay for the privilege. This has been
the practice in Europe for some time, ever since headliners
realized the exposure of being on tour was valuable. Accordingly,
acts can pay anywhere from $500 to several thousand dollars
per night for an opening spot. This hasn't caught hold in
the United states, but I've heard rumblings of it recently.
Splits / Guarantees
Some clubs will pay you no front money but will give you a
split of the gate (meaning the money charged for admission).
The splits run anywhere from 20% to 60%, depending on your
stature and the number of other acts. For example, if there
are three acts, you might divide up 60% of the gate. If your
band is the biggest draw (meaning you "draw" in the
biggest crowds), however, you can ask for a more than equal
share. Sometimes you can get up to 100% of the gross after
the promoter gets back his/her expenses for the evening (advertising,
sound, lights, etc.). This is most common when the promoter
is also the club owner and is happy to break even on the door
charge just to get thirsty bodies into the seats. As to the
accuracy of the club's count, you'll have to rely on the club's
reputation or else have Bruno, your 300-pound roadie, stand
at the door and count.
If you're really hot locally and have a following, you might
get a minimum guarantee of $100 to $250 or so against your
share of the gate. Or,you might just take a higher fee, of
say $500 to $800 per night (with no share of the gate). I'm
basing the numbers in this section on the club scene in Los
Angeles because it's the one I'm most familiar with. These
are also based on a ticket price of $5 to $7. I'm told that
this basic pattern holds true for most major cities.
Expenses
The minimum cost of putting yourself on the road is the money
to rent a van you can use to carry equipment and sleep in,
plus three meals a day at McDonald's. And you'd better get
along really well with each other, or else expect some violent
crimes. The next step up (three or four to a room in cheapie
motels, slightly better meals, and perhaps someone to move
the equipment) gets into more expense, as you can readily
see. But if you watch it carefully, you can get by cheap enough
to play the independent circuit and make a few bucks.
If you're headlining larger clubs or doing the opening act
on a tour, the minimum cost of putting a four-piece band on
the road can run around $10,000 per week, broken down roughly
as $1,000 for crew, $2,000 for food and hotels, $2,500 for
equipment and personnel costs, and $4,000 for insurance, commissions
to managers and agents, equipment repairs, etc. With travel
and set-up, you can't really do more than five shows a week
and you don't need to be a math genius to see that you're
going to lose money doing this. Five night at even $1,500
per night is only $7,500, which is $2,500 per week less than
it costs you to be there! And the longer you stay out, the
more you're going to lose.
Donald Passman is a Los Angeles-based
music attorney with the firm of Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown.
Specializing in music business law for over 20 years, his
clients include major publishers, record companies, film companies,
managers, producers, songwriters, and artists such as REM,
Janet Jackson, Quincy Jones, Tina Turner and Green Day. On
a regular basis, we will be excerpting from Mr. Passman's
best-selling book, "All You Need To Know About The Music
Business."
From "All You Need To Know About The Music
Business" by Donald S. Passman. ©1991, 1994, 1997 by
Donald S. Passman. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster,
Inc.
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