how much to charge for a gig
I play in a band of 40 somethings, we've all done a fair share of paid gigs in the past but in our lastest band we've just been playing for the love of it and said we wouldn't really go out looking for gigs but would take any if offered.
We did a charity gig last night, and off the back of that have been asked if we want to play at a school function. It's an hour set at a quite exclusive private school, and we have been asked to give a price.We have no idea of how much we should be charging, obviously want to get what should be the going rate without either underselling ourselves or pricing ourselves out.
Any ideas what we should quote?
Assuming it's a normal 4 or 5 piece band then anything upwards of £500 would be a start. What people will pay tends to be regional as well as reputation related but I think £500 as a minimum would be about right to begin with
Highly variable.
Our drummer travels north of the river to play with us cos we get an extra £100 per gig average here rather than there.
A very, very rough ball park figure I think would be £200 - £250 for just an hour's set in a school (rather than a pub or club).
So bloody hard to judge -- e.g. we do a venue which we're not keen on and we said £450 to shut them up but they just said, "OK".
EDIT -- lmao! just seen Danny's reply -- that's what I mean about "highly variable"! :-) We played for £650 last night for about 1.5 hours. But that's at the very top end of what we get. Roll some dice!
How to determine a MINIMUM fee for your gig
New member of MusicRadar here - saw this posting and wanted to share - a few months ago I whipped up a small site for a bunch of my friends who still gig (me - still play and write, but rarely perform)
This site was designed with my former bandmates and pals in mind, who still gig here in the states. It should still work for UK bands though, provided you ignore mention of "Miles" per "Gallon" and instead just think "Kilometers" per "Liter", etc.
It's called gigcalc, and you can find it at:
gigcalc.gehwokka.com
I'd love feedback if you find it useful, and I'd REALLY love feedback if you don't - I'm trying to improve it so that it's really useful to gigging musicians. It should help determine a fair rate for your upcoming gig. The idea is that you need to recover your COSTS at a minimum, and this calculator helps you determine that. Once a band is popular I assume the market takes over and you can ask what the market bears, but until then - don't LOSE MONEY - use this calculator!
Thanks!
Fuel on the calculator max's out at $5.80 per (US presumably) gallon. Doesn't even get close to UK fuel prices lmao!
Gotta love the tax
I just paid the equivalent of $6.89 USD per US gallon today.
Last edited by Grunfeld.; 23rd August 2010 at 12:00 AM.
@gehwokka
Hello, welcome and thanks for your post. The calculator is a very interesting idea a couple of things didn't work for me. I put in 2 uk postcodes and it decided that one of them was in germany, so the milage was a little out
The whole idea of calcuating gig cost based around anual salaries just doesn't work for us. We are not looking to do this for a living and the band consists of 1 barrister, 1 company director and 2 managers for major corporations so if this was about money our expectations would most likely be unrealistically high.
I think for us a tool that others could enter what sort of rates they charge in a geographical area would be really useful. Another really useful tool would be a site thats just basically a venue exchange, eg a list of venues, type of music they book, contact details etc.
Having said that, I think its great that you have taken the time to develop this as a tool for the community without gain for yourself. I'm sure its very useful for some poeple. The world needs more community minded people.
I don't know what it is about your site but my anti virus wont let me use itOriginally Posted by gehwokka
FS Digitech Harmony Man
http://forum.musicradar.com/showthre...65#post1391465
AS has been said - prices vary. Anywhere from £150 for 2 45 min sets in a pub, to £1500 or more for 3 45 min sets at a function.
Personally, knowing where you are, and given its only one set - and at a school (so comming out of funds - no bar etc ) I wouldnt be asking too much. OK its a private school so can afford more than most schools but still.
Id be asking around £50 per band member plus costs. Dont know if your a 4 or 5 piece band, but I recons £250 isnt too much/little given the gig.
I would take a great song with Bad tone over Great tones in a shitty song anyday.
Thanks so much for the feedback - it was really helpful - I'm so pleased that you took the time to think about what you'd like/need.
"Hello, welcome and thanks for your post. The calculator is a very interesting idea a couple of things didn't work for me. I put in 2 uk postcodes and it decided that one of them was in germany, so the milage was a little out"
I'll look into the mapping thing - I just tried using "Potters Bar, UK" to "Bath, UK" and it worked for me no problem (of course it returned the MILES instead of kilometers, so I'll be thinking of a way to switch that to and fro)
"The whole idea of calcuating gig cost based around anual salaries just doesn't work for us. We are not looking to do this for a living and the band consists of 1 barrister, 1 company director and 2 managers for major corporations so if this was about money our expectations would most likely be unrealistically high."
Understood - I read your comments on annual salaries and I believe I haven't explained this very well. I too am a manager working in Washington DC. I don't gig very much but I do some production work for others (primarily in video). The fees I charge for this are modest and do not come close to paying the bills - that's what my 9-to-5 is for. I can't justify charging a professional rate for this work - it's just not that good. But I wouldn't do it for FREE either. Here's how I look at it - there exists a PRICE that the four of you can live with that represents an hour of your time to do something you love. Try to find that price and use it (even if you don't use my calculator for other reasons). Once you've established that price you'll find that when you quote it - it has the RING of confidence that otherwise wouldn't exist if you hadn't thought about it and gotten consensus from your bandmates (that's what the salary slider is for - it's an hourly rate you can LIVE WITH) Is this explanation make any sense? I can never tell if I'm being clear...
There were two other suggestions for tools that I really like:
The tool that lets others enter the rates they charge in a geo area. I really like this and I will explore this in my copious spare time!
The tool that is a venue exchange, types of music, etc. - I believe there are several such sites out there, and the owners generally CHARGE for access. It's gotta be work keeping it up to date, etc.
THANK YOU once again for the time you spent replying - I will certainly think about how best to incorporate your suggestions!!
Last edited by gehwokka; 23rd August 2010 at 02:27 PM. Reason: didn't quote someone else...
SSSSOOO VERY SORRY!!I don't know what it is about your site but my anti virus wont let me use it
About two years ago I had a blog on that same site using WordPress (that I never used) that got taken over by evil-doers who used it to infect machines with malware.
Over six months ago I worked closely with my ISP to wipe the site CLEAN - since then even google's tools report that it's a clean site and nothing to worry about. I'm not surprised to discover that the site may still be on some list somewhere, but I can assure you that my site is now CLEAN. In fact - it's rather spartan and there's no "blogging" code up there to infect. I hope you're able to visit soon, and if you know of any way to get me off your list please let me know and I act on it quickly.
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