How much do bands get paid? Covers vs original material.

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  • lefunklefunk Frets: 2
    We play in the Manchester area. Pubs around here generally pay covers bands between £200 and £300 a gig. Number of musicians is irrelevant.
    Weddings generally pay between £150 and £250 per musician in the band. Some wedding bands charge a lot more than this though.

    Dave C
     Acoustic/Electric Guitarist
     LeFunk! Wedding and Function Band
     www.lefunk.co.uk
     www.facebook.com/lefunkuk
     www.twitter.com/lefunk_band
     www.soundcloud.com/lefunk-3

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  • David5150David5150 Frets: 118

    Essex modern rock covers band - we get paid 200-250 per gig which is fine for us as we're never going to make our fortune rocking out the dog and duck.

    We do a few weddings - mainly for friends of friends - and charge £1000 - £1500 for band and DJ

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  • digitalscreamdigitalscream Frets: 26450
    We're an originals band, and generally-speaking we only ever cover petrol money from gigs; any profit comes from selling t-shirts and CDs. Even when we headline, it's likely we'll only get £50-£100 (if anything at all) for a 45-minute set.

    The exception is when we play a full two-hour gig, where we usually take £200-250.

    The biggest take was my last band's album launch. After we'd paid the other two bands and the sound guy, we ended up with about £200 from the door and about £300 from merch sales. We ran the whole night, though; I'm convinced that's the only way to make decent money from originals gigs until you get big enough to guarantee a good crowd.
    <space for hire>
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  • vasselmeyervasselmeyer Frets: 3664
    Another thing to mention is that when I got back into gigging in 2012 after a long time out of not playing in a band we were going out for £200. It's now 2018 with 6-7 years of inflation and we're playing for...£200. However, it seems there are fewer pubs and they're struggling even more than they used to be so it's not surprising that landlords are looking to reduce their costs wherever they can.
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  • digitalscreamdigitalscream Frets: 26450
    Another thing to mention is that when I got back into gigging in 2012 after a long time out of not playing in a band we were going out for £200. It's now 2018 with 6-7 years of inflation and we're playing for...£200. However, it seems there are fewer pubs and they're struggling even more than they used to be so it's not surprising that landlords are looking to reduce their costs wherever they can.
    I had a covers band back when I was 18 (in 1995). The average gig paid...£200. The equivalent nowadays, looking at inflation calculators, would be £378.
    <space for hire>
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  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    Looking at my average for this year (23 gigs) it’s £271. We don’t go out for less than £200, but £250-£300 is the usual. 

    That’s a 4 piece rock covers band. 
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  • JetfireJetfire Frets: 1687
    We are in Swansea area mainly so we have loads of gigs in the diary for this year which are mostly pub gigs but it ranges price wise from £250 up to £1000 for new years eve. We have a mental note of venues that only pay £200 and we are always busy when they ask. However, we are lucky in the respect of having an agent/booking bloke who does loads of bands locally and he has been really fair with us. We want to go out and only do big money shows (£400 etc) from now on but i cant see it happening just at the minute as there arent the venues and weddings are tricky beast to catch.
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  • FreebirdFreebird Frets: 5821
    edited May 2018
    I've never seen a covers band play at Glastonbury, so I'm guessing it's down to the quality of the original material as to whether you get paid or not?
    If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
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  • ESBlondeESBlonde Frets: 3576
    Jetfire said:
    We are in Swansea area mainly so we have loads of gigs in the diary for this year which are mostly pub gigs but it ranges price wise from £250 up to £1000 for new years eve. We have a mental note of venues that only pay £200 and we are always busy when they ask. However, we are lucky in the respect of having an agent/booking bloke who does loads of bands locally and he has been really fair with us. We want to go out and only do big money shows (£400 etc) from now on but i cant see it happening just at the minute as there arent the venues and weddings are tricky beast to catch.
    If you want the weddings market, they tend to think pub bands are cheap. At our most successful we played just two pubs occasionally on a sunday night. That way we used them as a shop window and to test new material and people believe you when you tell them the price for a wedding, if they know you do pubs saturday night regularly you are going to be cheap. I know other bands that have a different name for the two markets (and sometimes add or change a musician too), this has the same effect.


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  • JD50JD50 Frets: 650

    I played in an originals band until a couple years ago. We were London based & would take around £500 on average.

    After doing shows with various so called promoters..... not getting paid/double booked venues/ un-safe non-working backline 'sorry the PA cuts out now and again, give it 5 mins'

    We put our own shows together ran the door sorted DJ's picked support band, chose venue, did a lot of promo etc

    We also use to try and put on shows in more interesting spaces  so for example we had the top floor of a cinema & other times we put on shows in art galleries.


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  • Rowby1Rowby1 Frets: 1258
    Freebird said:
    I've never seen a covers band play at Glastonbury, so I'm guessing it's down to the quality of the original material as to whether you get paid or not?
    Don’t agree with that. There’s some right rubbish gets played at Glastonbury and some amazing stuff never gets beyond local pub gig circuits.  If you’d said popularity rather than quality I’d agree.
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  • FreebirdFreebird Frets: 5821
    edited May 2018
    Rowby1 said:
    Freebird said:
    I've never seen a covers band play at Glastonbury, so I'm guessing it's down to the quality of the original material as to whether you get paid or not?
    Don’t agree with that. There’s some right rubbish gets played at Glastonbury and some amazing stuff never gets beyond local pub gig circuits.  If you’d said popularity rather than quality I’d agree.
    Quality and popularity are both subject to public opinion, so most of the artists who play at Glastonbury (and other large venues) will most likely be popular and/or amazing, but I do get the distinction you are making 
    If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
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  • Grocer_JackGrocer_Jack Frets: 258
    Originals - £200-300 if we run the night ourselves, or if it's a promoter who is putting on a night where we'll fit right in and bring a decent crowd. It does vary though and we still do some for next to nothing if it might help build an audience. 
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31367
    Here in mid Wales we play pubs for 300, parties for 400 and weddings for 600. We rarely travel more than 20 miles because I can't be arsed.
    :)

    I doubled the price for weddings a couple of years ago for the simple reason that I hate them, but we've had twice as many bookings since. That said, the weddings we do now are generally more fun than the ones we did when we started. 

    I still do a few originals gigs with a couple of singer songwriters which means I get to play some great gigs. I just do those for fuel and strings money if the singer isn't getting a fee, I  have a personal rule of never making a loss no matter what the gig is.
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    One thing I've learned over the years is don't do weddings cheap. If you charge £500 or so for a wedding then you've not a big cost in the grand scheme of things and your band can be viewed as side show rather than the main attraction. 

    If you triple that then A : you know the bride \ groom really did want a band because they are willing to pay for it B: No they won't let the venue stuff their £1500 band in the corner and be told to turn down. this band cost a lot of money! 
    C: Doing well paid weddings allows you to buy some very nice professional PA gear which gets used at all the other gigs. 

    Charging a lot of money for weddings actually solves most of the problems cheaper bands experience at weddings, regardless of how good they are. You will miss out on some work but only the work where they didn't really want you
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • CabicularCabicular Frets: 2214
    Danny1969 said:
    One thing I've learned over the years is don't do weddings cheap. If you charge £500 or so for a wedding then you've not a big cost in the grand scheme of things and your band can be viewed as side show rather than the main attraction. 

    If you triple that then A : you know the bride \ groom really did want a band because they are willing to pay for it B: No they won't let the venue stuff their £1500 band in the corner and be told to turn down. this band cost a lot of money! 
    C: Doing well paid weddings allows you to buy some very nice professional PA gear which gets used at all the other gigs. 

    Charging a lot of money for weddings actually solves most of the problems cheaper bands experience at weddings, regardless of how good they are. You will miss out on some work but only the work where they didn't really want you
    Couldn’t agree with that more
    plus if the father of the bride does tell you to turn down you can console yourself with the money 
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  • CabicularCabicular Frets: 2214
    Oh and also invest in some comfortable shoes
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31367
    Danny1969 said:
    One thing I've learned over the years is don't do weddings cheap. If you charge £500 or so for a wedding then you've not a big cost in the grand scheme of things and your band can be viewed as side show rather than the main attraction
    I think we get a lot of wedding bookings from weddings we've played at because we're happy to accept that we ARE a sideshow, the main focus is supposed to be the happy couple.
     
    Do you honestly believe all those people have dressed up and gone to a country house in the middle of nowhere because they've been dying to see your band?

    We still had about 80 people dancing all night last Saturday, but the ones who weren't dancing were happy to stay in the same function room and nod along or chat to friends or relatives they may not have seen for years.
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  • CabicularCabicular Frets: 2214
    p90fool said:
    Danny1969 said:
    One thing I've learned over the years is don't do weddings cheap. If you charge £500 or so for a wedding then you've not a big cost in the grand scheme of things and your band can be viewed as side show rather than the main attraction
    I think we get a lot of wedding bookings from weddings we've played at because we're happy to accept that we ARE a sideshow, the main focus is supposed to be the happy couple.
     
    Do you honestly believe all those people have dressed up and gone to a country house in the middle of nowhere because they've been dying to see your band?

    We still had about 80 people dancing all night last Saturday, but the ones who weren't dancing were happy to stay in the same function room and nod along or chat to friends or relatives they may not have seen for years.
    But the band have to be a key part of the event. Otherwise hire a DJ
    I agree I don’t put in a visual performance for the wedding stuff but Yiu have to have presence 
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