Band Payment Methods

[J. Dan]

I used to run a band and if we got cash, I paid cash. If we got a check, I deposited it and sent checks. I gave options to band members if they wanted to give me account numbers, I would do direct balance transfer to their account. Only one guy did that.

 

Since then, I've been filling in with a lot of different bands. As a fill-in guy, most of the time they have cash ready for me, regardless of how they get paid. I've gotten some checks, too, which is also fine.

 

But I'm starting to see some of the younger bands using stuff I haven't used before and am wondering if this is a trend. I played Saturday night and saw the band got a check and the singer said, oh, you'll just have to get your info to the drummer. I assumed that meant mailing address for a check, so I took off figuring he could mail it after the band check cleared or whatever. But then I got a message, hey you left without giving me your zele info. Never used it before, don't know if my bank even has it, he said I'd need to give my email or something, but since I've never used it, I opted for a check, which he is mailing.

 

I know there is other stuff out there for money transfer and I'm just wondering if this is something that is becoming a trend for bands paying the members? These folks were quite a bit younger than me, so thinking it's a generational thing, perhaps. Do I need to start figuring this stuff out to get paid? Is it all secure and stuff?

[Joe Muscara]

I have no idea, I've never played with that generation. But, I have seen them talk about it. Like, "oh, we don't use PayPal, we use Venmo. That's what we're all using now." But it turns out PayPal owns Venmo.

 

I signed up for it just in case, as it's free. I almost always sign up for free accounts when something new (to me at least) comes along to reserve my username and be ready in case someone wants to connect with me or pay me or whatever.

[Tusker]

I have no idea, I've never played with that generation. But, I have seen them talk about it. Like, "oh, we don't use PayPal, we use Venmo. That's what we're all using now." But it turns out PayPal owns Venmo.

 

Yes, I use Venmo quite a bit. It feels immediate and it's one of several options that might come up. I've had players telling me they would rather have Venmo than cash.

[cphollis]

Venmo and Zele are almost ubiquitous with a certain generation. For example, our rental tenants often pay that way. As landlords, it's super-convenient for both parties.

[Outkaster]

I struggle with this a bit myself Dan. If it was up to me I'd do some direct deposit type of thing. The issue is you get paid differently every gig and it's a real pain. Personally I hate cash. It's hard to track, causes problems also when I have to use Quicken. I Zelle stuff to my daughter in DC all the time. You just need an e-mail address that is associated with a bank account. It's actually a good thing. It means he is paying you out of an account so it's direct electronic transfer of funds. You get an e-mail confirmation when the funds arrive.

[CowboyNQ]

Wait...you can get paid for being in a band?

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Most of my bands are using Venmo at this point, but all of the bands I'm in have at least one holdout, which means they just have to wait a little longer to get cash (either because we got paid in a check, or because we didn't get the right cash denominations to divide by 7 or whatever). PayPal does own them, which makes me think it's as safe as anything digital could be. I've been asked about Zelle but never used it myself. Every now and then, good ol' PayPal comes up.

 

The thing that seems to be generational as much as using apps themselves are the concerns about security. Older folks generally are more cautious. My contemporaries and younger generally feel that there's no such thing as privacy anyway, so what the hell. :wink:

Wait...you can get paid for being in a band?

And there's the real heart of it!

 

[Morrissey]

Adding to the list, I've also had a band prefer Square's "Cash" app (hint: no actual cash involved).

[ProfD]

Adding to the list, I've also had a band prefer Square's "Cash" app (hint: no actual cash involved).

Same here. Super convenient for getting $ to and from clients, friends, family, bandmates, etc.

[Ken Beaumont]

Usually I get paid cash. If its a check, I either draw out cash at the ATM and then deposit the check the next day or pay everyone at the very next practice.

The only one I ever wire money to is my daughter in Bali, for that I use Zelle.

[richforman]

At a gig last week, the bandleader told me she'd gotten paid by check so could Venmo me. I don't have an account with that, but asked if she could Paypal it to me and that worked out fine, have had a paypal account for 20 years or more I'd guess. Does Venmo offer any different or better functionality than paypal for transferring money, am I missing out on anything by not being on it? Paypal seems convenient enough to me, but maybe I'm living in the dark ages and don't realize it. (Of course if the person has an account with the same bank you do, transferring money is extremely easy.)

[Synthoid]

Wait...you can get paid for being in a band?

 

First I heard about it.

 

 

[Bobadohshe]

At a gig last week, the bandleader told me she'd gotten paid by check so could Venmo me. I don't have an account with that, but asked if she could Paypal it to me and that worked out fine, have had a paypal account for 20 years or more I'd guess. Does Venmo offer any different or better functionality than paypal for transferring money, am I missing out on anything by not being on it? Paypal seems convenient enough to me, but maybe I'm living in the dark ages and don't realize it. (Of course if the person has an account with the same bank you do, transferring money is extremely easy.)

 

Venmo is a little less of a pain in the ass than Paypal. They never take fees off a transaction. Paypal does if the sending party doesn't mark it the right way. And the app is a piece of cake. And there's this aspect of it: you don't need to have someone's E-mail address, you just need to find that person's Venmo username. It's nice because you don't have to jot down someone's stupid E-mail you can literally find them on Venmo with them standing right there and then send them the $.

[Bobadohshe]

Lots of smaller $100 or so gigs various people will pay with Venmo. My corporate band still cuts paper checks which seems kind of inefficient as there will sometimes be like 3-4 checks a week. But they do 1 check per gig and that's how they like to keep it straight. I don't mind at all I like the physical checks.

[Michael Wright]

Wait...you can get paid for being in a band?

 

[ElmerJFudd]

If you work a lot.... Pay by check, give them a 1099 at the end of the year. You shouldn"t be paying tax on income you are paying out to contracted players.

[wineandkeyz]

Adding to the list, I've also had a band prefer Square's "Cash" app (hint: no actual cash involved).

Same here. Super convenient for getting $ to and from clients, friends, family, bandmates, etc.

 

My main band uses the Cash app and it has worked great for us. My wife and I have a side band and we tried to get the three guys in it to use it, too. None the them could figure it out.

[MAJUSCULE]

I get etransfers most of the time now. Still the odd cash gig, cheques only from one bandleader or from companies. Curious if fees are higher in the States or something? I know about Venmo and how big it is down there but it doesn't seem to be active here. I send and receive transfers with zero fees with any bank in Canada.

[zxcvbnm098]

Zelle is a system owned by the big banks. I have B of A, and it's there when I log onto my account online..

[El Lobo]

This came up in another discussion about tipping the band. More and more, people don't carry any cash so you can't get tips for the band. You need to have a Venmo sign or other app on the tip bucket so people can send a tip to an account. There are also more and more stores and restaurants that don't take cash. Soon we'll all have chip implants so these transactions can all happen just by thinking ...

[Docbop]

I've never done this stuff I do use PayPal for my lessons and pay coworkers to reimburse for lunch or whatever. I think if I was working all the time I would open a small checking account with a separate bank, so if scammed, hacked, whatever it isn't tried to my main bank accounts. It would also make it easy to track how much money I made independent of everything else. Kind of like having a second cellphone for business separate from personal phone.

 

 

[Baldwin Funster]

Are any of you...I mean uh, do you know of a friend that is on SSID that gets paid electronically? I'm not saying under the table but wink wink nod nod. Let him that readeth understand.

[timwat]

A lot of it here has gone Venmo, Zelle and Cash (the app).

 

PayPal is so 2017 - I guess it's become the payment version of Ok Boomer.

 

Interestingly, while only a certain mature generation still uses paper checks to pay me, they're generally the ones who book me the most and have the highest paying gigs.

 

Tim

 

 

 

 

[jeffincltnc]

Pretty soon we"ll be getting paid in bitcoin and other crypotcurrencies using blockchain.

[EscapeRocks]

Yeah, we use Zelle to distribute band funds to everyone.

 

We also use Venmo among ourselves for non band things. Example: out to dinner, and instead of making the server split the check 5 ways, one of us pays, and the rest Venmo that person their share of the bill.

[Baldwin Funster]

We've come a long way from chocolate and American cigarettes.