How much money do you make per gig

[Radiohead]

How much money do you guys make per gig? What type of shows do you play at?

[WCunha]

I play in a cover band and play mostly bars. We make $500 a gig. Being a member of a five piece band I get a $100. Man I wish we were a Power Trio! It really doesn't matter I just use it to buy more gear. I'm still in the hole and will probably never be out of the red as far as the gig money goes.

[WCunha]

Oh yea I forgot to mention I just bought a Mesa 400+ and I am waiting for it to arrive. See what I mean I can spend it faster than I can make it

[...]

There is a thread where this was basically talked about over the the For The Band forum. But, here:

 

Depends if I'm playing covers or original music. Original music gigs... fugettaboutit. Usually with original music, you get less than $100 a night for the whole band; and hopefully an invitation to come back and play again. There are exceptions to this, and if you can manage to build a decent following, you will graduate into the $500+ a night range. Every original band that is out there gigging thinks they are the greatest thing since The Beatles (or, more accurately, since the coming of Blink 419; or any other band that has a number in it's name). All these bands think they are going to build these huge followings. Most do not. Most have an audience filled with their friends, and eventually their friends get tired of coming to see them 4 times a month.

 

Cover bands are a different story. Average joe cover band will make $300-1000 per evening. This depends a great deal on the venue and how many people they can get in the door. Not bad. If you are in a show band/party band/tribute band, which tend to be the groups that put on more of a show than playing a gig in jeans and a t-shirt, have lights, sound reinforcement, a manager, booking agency, etc... and you are playing the 'A' clubs/locations, you can make anywhere between $1000-5000 per night (and up).

[61Pbass]

What I make varies so much it's mind boggling. Right now we are at that "in between" stage where we're both opening and headlining shows, yet still playing private parties and cover gigs in bars.

 

For cover gigs, our standard asking price as of now is $1200 per night. Larger venues will pay more, smaller a bit less and multiple night bookings in the same place will knock the per night wage down a little. The price also goes up if we have to bring P.A. Private parties generally pay more, somewhere between $2000 and $3000.

 

When we're a support act at a show it's been about $500 - $600 a pop lately. When we're headlining our standard asking price is $1500 for a 90 minute show, but it is sometimes whatever comes in from the door, which can be very little or a TON.

 

Keep in mind that all of us come from "artist gig" backgrounds, have all been doing this for a living for a lot of years (connections, connections, connections), have a great manager and are experiencing the financial benefits of just releasing our debut c.d. Six months ago we weren't making even a third of what we are now.

 

As an aside, we sometimes make as much on merchandise as we do for playing. Gotta love S.W.A.G..........

[SteveC]

I make about $50 a night playing with the 9 piece funk/horn band. When our jazz combo (3 or 4 guys) plays, it's more like $75 -$100 a night.

[Mike H.]

Now that we've paid off our PA equipment, hopefully A LOT MORE!!!

[bassplayer5217]

SteveC said it for me, actually. That is scarily identical to my situation. (shiver)

[davebrownbass]

Just got back from a gig...

 

One rehearsal, one performance. $250. Played 2 songs with the Women's Chorus of Dallas.

 

Of course, these gigs only come around every once in a while. Generally, I make about $75-100 per gig...typically reading. Never play the same music twice in these things.

 

Church gig, $150 for 1.5 hours.

[prophetgtree]

$0.

 

As a band we have made about $500 in 3 shows. Recently, however, nothing. We play at a concert venue for our friends and this place doesn't pay performers. It is just a matter of time before we finally break into Athens!

[DanYmaL X]

You mean you guys get PAID to play? I'm in a Christian band, and we do shows for non-profit organizations and church groups in two states, (the last one was for the Pregnancy Care Center, 600 people, including Billy Graham's daughter- that was interesting...) and we did get Pizza once...

Actually, we do sometimes get paid for travel expenses, I think the most we have pulled for a gig in was $300.00

 

DX

[jeremy c]

As a sideman, I get $150 to $400 for gigs.

 

As a leader, I get twice that.

 

I play mostly corporate parties these days, sometimes the entire band gets as much as $5000 for four hours, depending how many people are in it.

 

I've been doing this for 40 years, it's about time that I started making decent money.

[spotdog13]

i played in a 3 piece band for 17 years in the mid-atlantic area.when i started playing the blues back in the early 70`s the pay averaged out to about 40 drafts and what ever the pass of the hat brought in.as the blues caught on in this area and our name became more recognized the pay got better.i would say 250 to 350 per man a night.now i am playing in a 4 piece and 6 piece averaging 100 bucks

[bubba upright]

I play in a jazz quartet that earns $200. per night, a convention jazz gig that gets about $1200. per night and a fusion-type band that gets $250. per night. Usually the rule is, the more fun the gig is, the less it pays. You can play "It's a Small World" at the local tourist trap for $150.00 per day if you can stand it.

[Ninja]

Rome is different, if you play in town the average pay is €50-60 each. Out of town you can even get €150, with all expenses, travel, food, and accomodation paid.

Talking about pro's, they can get up to €250-300 each.

However, I also play in a band with concerts 200 klometers from my town and we get payed €500 to €1000 each. That's REALLY rewarding.

 

1€ = 1,20$

[Velvet Bulldozer]

I got paid $75.00 Saturday night for sitting in with a local rock band ($300.00 for the whole band).

 

That brings my grand total for the year up to....

 

SWR SM-500 head $-950.00

Goliath III Cab $-750.00

Paid performances $75.00

---------------------------

Total $-1625.00

 

Guess it's a good then I have a day job

[bc_dup1]

My last band had three types of gigs:

 

Type 1. Playing in local pubs where our friends could come along and turn it into a social event. These were most common. Typical fee, £300-£500 (whole band). Deduct £150-£200 pa hire and for a 10 piece band we were left with beer money. Nonetheless I enjoyed these gigs more than:

 

Type 2: As a party band we got invitations to play company dinner-dances etc. For these we could charge up to £3,000. After pa hire we would end up with £100 - £300 each. Nevertheless I hated these gigs, most people had no interest in the band and it was just like a day at the office. I spend enough of my life doing dull things for money without wanting to do it on a weekend as well.

 

Type 3: occasional more prestigious gigs, name band supports etc. Some of these we actually played for free just to get on the same bill, others paid ok (and pa was supplied, so we kept all the money).

 

My new band will not be paid as well, because the music we're playing - Massive Attack, Portishead and Air instead of Chic, EWF and Stevie Wonder - won't have such a broad appeal. We certainly won't get the company dinner dances. But I play for the fun, not the money, and as long as people come an hear us and we can afford pa hire I won't complain.

[jeremy c]

Maybe I should move to the UK.

I love playing Chic, EWF, and Stevie Wonder. There are some fantastic basslines on songs by those groups. Actually, I'll be playing a lot of that stuff with a 14 piece band on New Year's Eve.

 

My new band will not be paid as well, because the music we're playing - Massive Attack, Portishead and Air instead of Chic, EWF and Stevie Wonder - won't have such a broad appeal.

[ibescotty]

I take home 80$ a night for cover shows. As Bump said earlier, original shows net very little and we will never generate a following even if we are sold in local music stores. I'm pretty cynical about the original music scene now a days. The only reason I stick with it is because it's more fun as a creative outlet.

[getz out]

When I was gigging a lot back in college, I sound like I fell in with the rest of the bunch:

 

(1) Original Material - as Bump suggested, we would drag in 200 of our closest friends and make about $200 for a 5 piece band. Very rewarding musically, not so rewarding finacially. Any cash got turned back into making demos (on ADATs back then!).

 

(2) Disco/70's Cover Band - a two-set bar band, usually dragged in about $600 for a 4 piece act. Not too shabby, considering we weren't that good and a PA was supplied. But, we did wear costumes.

 

(3) Fill in for wedding gigs - back when my reading wasn't as rusty as it is now, I could actually get by at these gigs and I had a pulse and equipment (there aren't too many bass players down the NJ shore), so I qualified to fill in for my old teacher's band. Good paying gig, usually paid $300-400 per player, bandleader got double.

 

(4) Not-for-profit/youth groups - I actually have filled the bass chair for some youth groups in the recent past. Amazing, young teenagers will go NUTS for live music when they see it up close and it's not the "school band." Actually rewarding.

 

I haven't had a paying gig in some number of years. I doubt I will ever again. But, it's a fun hobby.

[bc_dup1]

Maybe I should move to the UK.

I love playing Chic, EWF, and Stevie Wonder. There are some fantastic basslines on songs by those groups. Actually, I'll be playing a lot of that stuff with a 14 piece band on New Year's Eve.

Jeremy we were playing very infrequently in the same small town - say twice a month. That type of music is hugely popular here, though - I think a good quality band that was prepared to tour and put on a bit of a show could probably do quite well.

 

Agreed the bass lines were great. But the band kept going for about 6 years and there wasn't always a lot of appetite to vary the set. Playing lines like Sir Duke/I Wish/Signed Sealed Delivered etc was great but 6 years later the novelty is wearing thin.

[DWBass]

As a band, we get paid min. $800 on up to about $2000+. Individually, I'll get anywhere between $120-$200 a night and we play aprox. 4 times a month give or take a gig! Not too bad. It helps pay the mortgage.

[...]

Originally posted by Ninja:

Rome is different, if you play in town the average pay is €50-60 each. Out of town you can even get €150, with all expenses, travel, food, and accomodation paid.

Talking about pro's, they can get up to €250-300 each.

However, I also play in a band with concerts 200 klometers from my town and we get payed €500 to €1000 each. That's REALLY rewarding.

 

1€ = 1,20$

I want to get paid in whatever monetary unit that is, just because it looks cool. Helluva lot more exciting that '$'.

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by Bumpcity:

I want to get paid in whatever monetary unit that is, just because it looks cool. Helluva lot more exciting that '$'.

Well, Bump, those would be Euro dollars (a.k.a., Euros). Pretty cool, eh?

 

[Pernax]

Yeah the Euro is quite nice, although it took a bit of getting used to, as everything had to be converted from the Finnish Mark to Euros (1e = ~6 FIM). Let's just say that gear related purchases don't seem too bad since when you used to pay 10000,- for a new bass, now you just pay ~1600,- . Pretty cool, huh...

 

And not to sidetrack totally from the initial question of the thread, my band plays small to medium venues, original metal, and we get paid around 200e per show. If you want to get rich, forget about metal ...

 

-P

 

Edit: For some reason this board doesn't seem to like my Euro-symbol, bah...

[Dennyf]

Originally posted by davebrownbass:

Church gig, $150 for 1.5 hours.

Wow. Is that a weekly church gig, or a one-off event?

 

My church gig pays me $200/month, one weekly service of about an hour, 4-5 tunes a week.

 

My band gig pays me $135-$175 per gig (I'm also the "sound guy"). Solo I get $200-250.

[ClarkW]

Originally posted by Sweet Willie:

Originally posted by Bumpcity:

I want to get paid in whatever monetary unit that is, just because it looks cool. Helluva lot more exciting that '$'.

Well, Bump, those would be Euro dollars (a.k.a., Euros). Pretty cool, eh?

 

I'm a User Interface and GUI engineer for a major software company. We spent thousands of manhours figuring out how to make old legacy software support ONE new character properly when the Euro symbol was invented. No matter how cool it looks, it will always have a terrible stigma associated for yours truly.

 

Back on the subject, I've made anywhere from $20 to $90 for a gig, mostly playing covers and a few originals at bars and parties. That's looking to change very soon, though, as I've got 3 different groups that would be capable of earning decent money, though I don't think any of the 3 groups are quite ready to put forth the necessary committment. Close, though!

[davebrownbass]

Originally posted by Dennyf:

Wow. Is that a weekly church gig, or a one-off event?

 

My church gig pays me $200/month, one weekly service of about an hour, 4-5 tunes a week.

 

My band gig pays me $135-$175 per gig (I'm also the "sound guy"). Solo I get $200-250.

Weekly gig...be doin' it for about 6 years now. Actually, it used to be $100 for a 1 hour service, no rehearsal (actually, about 3 rehearsals a year, but without pay.) They added the extra service at $50 about 3 months ago...we are done after the opening 4 songs, but I generally sit through the entire service. The drummer splits...as he has to get to a regular gig across town by noon.

 

We've discussed this a lot in Should you get paid to play in church?

[datsame1642606683]

I wouldn't call myself a working bass player but when I do get gigs it usually pans out like this:

 

Jazz group: Depending on how many players. About $100 each

 

Theatre work: I tend to get a so-called allowance that started at $220 for three weekends but they changed it to $100 now so I don't do too many of them anymore because I end up spending more than that over those 3 weeks

 

High School tests: I have played for a few high scool test and tend to charge $20-$50 per day (about a 2-3 hrs)they call me in and depending on how much work I have to do at home on the piece.

 

My band: $0 x 1,000,000. All money goes into a drawer at home until we record next. Not safe but everyone trust me. But if I had to make an est. per gig. $100 for the whole band.

 

Please remember this is in AUS dollars.

[RockwoodB]

My "pay" fluctuates alot.

 

One of my original bands, Troop of Echoes , gets anywhere from zip to $300 playing 45 minute sets in downtown venues. The money usually goes to practice space rent. We also play three hour nights at suburban bars with about half and half originals and covers. That usually pays $500-750 depending on the venue and day. For those I usually go home with at least $100.

 

In my other Original band, Run Miss Scarlet , we get payed anywhere from zip to about $150, since it's a newer band, playing downtown shows. Since we don't have enough material for 3 sets yet, we can make about $150-$200 sharing suburban bar deals with other bands. All of that money goes towards getting the band off the ground with promotional work, etc.

 

Then I sub for a variety band once in awhile when the permanent bass player can't make it. For that I get payed around $125 for three hours playing mostly motown/R&B stuff with a few originals that the leader likes to throw in. That's always fun and a quick way to make a buck. Did I mention no rehearsals?

 

Once and awhile I do a local community theater, playing upright and electric bass. That pays around $500 per month long show, but I don't think I'm going to do those anymore since it clogs up my other bands schedules, and after strings, gas, etc I end up just about breaking even.

 

Then there are jazz gigs which have huge fluctuations with time and money. Could be a three hour for $20 or a half hour for $150. There's no pattern..

 

And then all the school concerts and rehearsals that I'm actually paying for....!?!?!

Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, and Jazz band.