Members Howie22 Posted December 11, 2013 Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 For you guys that do a lot of high profile corporate and wedding gigs with incorporated travel, how do you go about pricing these gigs? Say, for instance, you are a 4 piece band and would consider 200-250/man a good price for a private event. When you start adding in hours of travel each way, early setup and soundcheck, overnight stays, meals, cost of hauling all of your gear, etc, it begins to get more complicated. On the one or two overnight gigs I've done before, I included verbage in the contract that the client was responsible for providing rooms to us, and those costs were in addition to the contract fee. Do you have a "formula" that you use for these type of things? How are you guys doing it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted December 11, 2013 Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 We are a 5 piece. In town regular rate: $1600 Out of town rate: $2100, (an extra $100/member for travel) and 3 - 5 rooms, along with being included in the events meal. 5 rooms is nice if they can swing it, if not we can double up 2 to a room and one room for our female band member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Howie22 Posted December 11, 2013 Author Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 Depending on how far it is, I'm not sure an extra $100/man is enough to cover the extra hours of a road trip and overnight stay away from family (depending on how far it is). Though, your base pay is currently more than what we're pulling, so it would even out in the end. How about when tuxedos are required for more formal events? Do most of you guys own them, or do you build the rental cost into the price of the gig? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Howie22 Posted December 11, 2013 Author Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 Not to get sidetracked on the tux thing. I would never put it in as a line item cost or anything. Rather, just want to make sure our costs are covered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Howie22 Posted December 11, 2013 Author Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 More stuff I'm not thinking about being a rookie to this stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted December 11, 2013 Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 Yep. Having a wireless mic is essential. If your singer doesn't already use one, you'll need one for speeches.We also carry around a couple of extra powered speakers and small mixer so they can have something to play background music through during their cocktail hours or dinner if they are not in the same room that the band is playing. And for weddings this might include a system out where the ceremony is taking place and providing a lapel mic for the officiant. It's easy to tack these on as extra charges since their only other option would be to either provide their own system or rent it from somebody else. Again, we don't necessarily line-item them out as we want to give ourselves flexibility in negotiating the price, but they are a great way to tack on a couple-hundred extra bucks to the fee or, at the very least, help justify the fee you're charging if they start to balk. A typical negotiation usually includes a conversation like this:Client: "really? $XXXX? That sounds like a lot of money just to have a band play for 3 hours...."Us: "well remember that for $XXXX you're not just getting a band that plays for 3 hours but that includes the necessary time for set up and tear down, our full sound system and lighting, our qualified sound technician, our travel expenses, the use of our mics and sound system for your speeches, and the use of our smaller sound system for your background music and your ceremony. You won't have to worry about any of that stuff or rent any other equipment from any other vendor. We'll take care of all of it for you!"The more you can make it seem like they are getting a great value for their $$$ the easier it is to ask for the highest possible fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted December 11, 2013 Members Share Posted December 11, 2013 Howie22 wrote: More stuff I'm not thinking about being a rookie to this stuff To get back to your original question. I think it kind of boils down to this. Anytime you break into a new market no matter what the activity, you have to go in at a price that will land you the first sales and build from there. It doesnt matter what the top guys are making because they get those prices because they have been in the market long enough to have built up their brand to a top shelf product that gets a top price. For sure you dont want to lose money at it ,, but you do need to right price yourself to break into the market. What that price is for your band is somthing that only you really know and what the extra costs will be also depend on each situation and band. Its really not so much where you start out is where you end up after you get a few of these kind of gigs under your belt as you build your reputation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted December 13, 2013 Members Share Posted December 13, 2013 Most of our travel gigs are ah hour each way... Yeah, pretty close. But far enough to bunk down for the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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