Having worked on both sides of band guarantees (both paying them and asking for them), I have come to this conclusion: Guarantees are like communism. In theory, it sounds good. In practice, it royally sucks.

For you lucky people that don’t know about band guarantees, here’s a quick overview. When a band agrees to play a show, the typically specify a certain amount of money to receive at the end of the night. That’s their guarantee; so if the show sucks the venue still owes them the guaranteed amount. In some instances the guarantee is a minimum, but most of the time the guarantee is what you get paid, no more no less.

A disclaimer before my rant – I am applying this to DIY  local bands, smaller touring acts and the like. Big national acts with a good following usually have some hired help in pricing their musical services, have lengthy contracts (which are also annoying), and have lots of ticket sale data to pore over to fine-tune pricing.

Why guarantees suck for bands: It’s simple. If your guarantee is too high, you’re going to get a reputation for being overpriced and get fewer offers to play. Yes you can lower it, but the hit to your reputation can really hurt. To justify a high price, you need to bring a lot of people and do a good deal of promotion.

If it’s too low, you’re leaving money behind as a cut of the door would be more profitable. It is very difficult to achieve the Goldilocksian ideal price, and it’s hard to know when you’ve done it.  It’s a process of trial and error, where the “error” part of the equation hurts your rep and your wallet.

Why guarantees suck for venues: If you knew you were going to get paid the same amount regardless of the amount of work you do, would you go the extra mile and do more work? The “work” here, of course, being band promotion. Guarantees remove the monetary incentive for bands to push their promotion hard and get people out to see them. This is no good for the venue, especially in Austin. We’re over-saturated with music here and have multiple venues clamoring for our attention every night. Very few venues have built-in crowds and most of them rely on the strength of the bands playing there to draw people.

I’m all for bands getting paid. In fact, I wish there were a city ordinance stating that no band leave a show without some token minimum payment. In my idealism I believe bands should be paid based on merit. We already know it’s all about the money, let’s at least make it a semi-meritocracy. Venues can’t pay based on the quality of the music, but they can pay in relation to the amount of people that pay to see the show and drink. Pay more to bands that bring out a lot of people,  reinforcing and rewarding bands that do good promotion and play music people like.

Maybe it’s just that damn idealism again, but the solution seems simple enough. Quit with the guarantee nonsense and get paid in proportion to the job you perform.

Even for smaller shows, a band and the venue need to work together before the show to clearly lay out the terms of payment. If it is going to be a 70/30 split of the door, then say so. Venues tend to be vague on their payment terms leading to bands being surprised one way or the other when they peek inside the envelope at the end of the night. Some venues pay the night of the show, some pay later, some hold the payment for no more than 3 days, etc. Whether you are a band or work for a venue, just be clear and upfront with your terms, jointly agree on them, have a good show, and stick to them when it’s time to pony up the dough.