What do bars pay cover bands in yoru area?

[ratthedd]

My band has been together for about 4-5 years and we typically play out about once a month. We've done a couple of corporate gigs that have paid us about $600, but most of our paying gigs are at the local bars for about $300-$350.

 

I just found out through the grapevine that another band, very similar to mine, brings in a cool $600 per bar gig.

 

I have a day job, and my music is more a hobby than a source of income ($300 split 7 ways barely covers gas) but I certainly don't need to undercut the other local bands nor do I need to be stiffed.

 

What do the bars in your area pay for a classic rock, country, top 40 type cover band?

[wheresgrant3]

I live 1 hr north of NYC. Preveiling wage around comes in three flavors...

 

 

 

 

#1-If you suck and you don't draw you get the door... or if you are lucky $250-$300. Bottom o' the barrel... after a few jam sessions in the garage bands like this pop up every day.

 

 

#2- If you don't suck but don't draw OR if you still suck but draw pretty well it's $300-$500. The majority of bands lie here. There are a lot of great sounding bands in my area that just don't draw alot of people... The anti smoking law has really hurt NY.

 

#3- If you draw a lot it can be $600-$1000. About 3-4 bands fall into this category.

 

 

If you are getting $400 and another band similar to you gets $600... how similar are they in terms of draw? Is the place packed when they play and only mildly occupied when you play? It's all important info to know when negotiating for more $$$ especially when you compare yourself to another band.

[FlyingKeys]

My band usually gets $400 for a 3-hour gig. Not bad considering the diminutive scale of cost of living up here.

[SSJMP]

Wow! ND hasn't changed much since I played weekends/covers band 12-15 years ago. We made $500 - 700 for both Friday and Saturday nights and maybe 900 bucks for weekend gig if it was further than 2 hours away from our homes in Fargo.

 

I played full time/touring for 5 years (real money) after that...retired from music for another 4 years...now I am back to playing weekends just for fun down here in Minneapolis. We make $700 to $1200 a night as we have a following and some good connections. We do summer festivals/specials for a $1000 for an hour or 90 minute show. Life is good for a weekend/hobby band when you are connected!

[superiorparts]

i live in central mississippi. we charge clubs different than private parties. a good club we will get $1000 for a one nighter and upwards from $1400 to $1800 for a two nighter and sometime this comes with hotel room and bar tabs. we have played played clubs for $600-$800 for a one nighter just to get our name in the door and show them that we are worth the money. private parties we charge from $1000-$2000 depending on the gig. usually frat and sorority parties we make the upper scale. we dont do wedding receptions less than $1500. they are a hassle. all and all, band prices depend on your area, number of competing bands in your area, and the general club circiut. our pay is not real bad but there are not that many places to play if you are not on with a booking agent. we are not. we book ourselves 100%.

 

kevin james

 

www.monkeyboneband.com

[Scafeets]

My cover band is playing what we like at bar gigs and getting $500 - $750. If we played crappier music we could play nicer places and get $1,500 - $3,000.

 

Life's too short to play crappy music.

[Cortfan]

Depending on the venue, most bars pay the band 100% of the door-usually $5 per person cover charge. You draw 100 paying guests, you split $500.00. Private parties start at $500 and go up. Sometimes rooms and bar tabs are thrown in as part of the fees. We opened for an awesome Pink Floyd tribute band, and the 2 bands, and 5 other people were the entire crowd. It was spring break at the college, and I think everyone was out of town except us.

[etcetera]

Do you feel that a cover charge sometimes hurt a band or club? Here on the west coast of Florida none of the big clubs charge a cover and are always packed. The crowd figures they are getting something for nothing ? Some of the smaller places charge covers are are mostly empty. When I say smaller I mean the number of people.

[e-b-e]

I think a cover charge could hurt bands sometimes if people don't go because of it.

 

Some places that don't have a cover charge may have higher drink prices.

 

Charging a cover may also result in people staying longer as compared to bar-hopping.

 

Different business models, some work better for some venues than others.

 

The money to pay the band has to come from somewhere, be it a door charge or from the profits made at the bar, or a combination of both.

[Fendercaster]

I'm currently in a couple of country/classic rock/oldies bands, and for the most part, we charge $400 a night, more for private parties, weddings, etc. My main band recently went from four pieces to three, and we haven't lowered our price. There are a limited number of venues to play around here, most of them pretty small, and they just won't pay more. We refuse to play for the door, we've all been stiffed from doing that before!

We're getting $1200 for New Years Eve, I'm happy to make $400 for the night, and it's only ten minutes from home.

[GZsound]

I guess I need to move to Mississippi..

 

The bar scene in Portland sucks. Most cover bands get five hundred a WEEKEND, two nights.. And we are saturated with the blues, I mean drowning in it.

 

We only play at one club and get $500 for one night and that is top dollar around here. Corporate gigs, weddings, fairs and festivals is the only way to make any money.

 

The bars paid better thirty years ago than they do now.

 

We simply won't play at most bars anymore because the money just sucks..

[srsfallriver]

I live about an hour south of Boston. Around here a typical bar band can make $300 - $600 depending on the venue and how popular they are. In Boston the prices are more like $500 - $1000.

 

My band used to do bar gigs but then moved (slowly at first) to the wedding/function scene. If you're looking to play just part-time, you may want to try that. We typically make about 5x as much at a wedding than we did at a club, the atmospere is friendlier, the venues are cleaner, and (I think) the music is better.

[lastcall]

Years ago I was working as a manager for a sports bar and Restaurant in a hotel in Mass. We had a house band play Friday nights in the bar, locals as well as a lot of hotel guests would come to see the band. I think we paid $500 + 3 drinks per band member. Well our regular house band broke up and we hired a new band, after a few weeks they were asking for more money, but they were bringing in less locals, it was mostly hotel guests. The next wekend there was a convention and bid wedding party staying at the hotel so the bar was packed. After the bar closed the keyboard player, who had been asking for more money, told me they needed $750 per night from now on, I said I'll have to check with the Hotel General manager. The next week we had a new band who was more than happy to have a regular friday night gig, make $100 per man and have a few free drinks.

So make sure you are bringing in the business to justify the extra cash you want.

[Scheming Demon]

The NJ bar & club scene is fairly similar as elsewhere.

 

A band just starting out or a band that does not draw will be lucky to get $200-$300. Way too many bands fall into this category.

 

There are few bands that have established themselves a little and can consistently draw at least 50-100 people. These bands can make around $300-$500 on average.

 

Consistently draw 100-200 people you can command $800-$1500 pretty easily.

 

Pack the house every time, you can easily pull in $2000 and sometimes a whole lot more. Not too many bands fall into this category.

 

If you're good enough and lucky enough to be in good with a reputable booking agent you can usually average between $600-$1500 and up per gig.

[worthyjoe]

We get between 300 and 500 with the norm being around 350. Luckily we are just a 3 piece so I'm happy when I take home atleast 100 on a gig. Anything more is a bonus. When I play solo acoustic I make 100 - 150. These are all 3-4 hour gigs.

 

I know that other bands get more but it depends a lot on draw and many of them have 5 people which adds to the show. When it comes to money in a cover band, it's ALL about how many people you can bring out. Some of the more established party bands in my area probably make anywhere from 800 to a couple thousand.

[wheresgrant3]

 

Originally posted by lastcall Years ago I was working as a manager for a sports bar and Restaurant in a hotel in Mass. We had a house band play Friday nights in the bar, locals as well as a lot of hotel guests would come to see the band. I think we paid $500 + 3 drinks per band member. Well our regular house band broke up and we hired a new band, after a few weeks they were asking for more money, but they were bringing in less locals, it was mostly hotel guests. The next wekend there was a convention and bid wedding party staying at the hotel so the bar was packed. After the bar closed the keyboard player, who had been asking for more money, told me they needed $750 per night from now on, I said I'll have to check with the Hotel General manager. The next week we had a new band who was more than happy to have a regular friday night gig, make $100 per man and have a few free drinks. So make sure you are bringing in the business to justify the extra cash you want.

 

 

Absolutely!!!! Especially if you are asking more than the "average wage" of most bands. We've been very careful to raise our prices slowly over two years and our draw has more than justified it. However we did it on a careful balance of our reputation, talent and not on how many we draw. Upstate New York doesn't have much of a band circuit or club scene.... everything is DIY including booking marketing and sound and in most cases... draw. Very few places have an installed club crowd. We were smart and went after a local beer distributor and made friends with some DJ's at the local radio station. The result landed us a Budwesier sponsorship and title of "House Band" for the local radio station. That increased our marketability $$$ 10 fold.

 

However as I said we raised our prices slowly... year after year. Most bands will have a couple of good gig and then rush to raise their prices. They end up pricing themselves out of the room. Most in our area get between $300-$500 depending on their draw. To be fair most local bands don't draw more than 30 people so we are not talking about a lot of people. Three years ago, when I joined this band was a four piece making $400-600 per night and drawing on average 40-50 people. We added keys and we shifted the focus away from alternative rock to 80's music and dance and our crowd balloon to over 100 people per night. Now minimum is much higher (split 6 1/2 ways-5 band members, 1 manager/soundguy and two roadies) with the majority of the gigs in the $1000+ range.

 

Although some bar owners have grumbled, we confidently feel feel the extra expense justifies what we deliver. Given the amount of work, effort and expense we have invested to make this band more of an "event" than a regular bar band we ceratinly deserve more than $100 or $200 more than the band that doesn't draw anybody. The key is to book the rooms that can afford it and have their own crowd to be entertained (Not dependent on your draw). Although some clubs have dropped us because they couldn't afford the increase, many new clubs have tripped over themselves trying to book us.

[spdolan]

We get around 300 bucks for a bar gig in central NY (Binghamton, Ithaca, Cortland area). Sometimes more if the bars do well. We have a decent following of friends who will come and drink their faces off - helps us get return bookings, for sure.

 

Dolan

[fastplant]

CT is all over the place. I've made anywhere from $200 to over $2,000 depending on the place and the band I'm in.

[ss454]

I haven't played in a cover band in a while but I have lots of family that still does and my cousin here in Arkansas makes $400 a night at two of the smaller clubs he plays and $1400 for 2 nights at the other 2 he plays. Only one of the smaller clubs book them for one night and they fill the place every time.

 

My cousin in Louisiana tends to play more by himself and makes about $150 a night locally that way and around $300 with his band. Their cost of living is MUCH lower than it is here so that's really good money for him but he's been booked in Virgina Beach 2 summers in a row bringing in $1200 a night plus food/room/drinks at the hotel that books him. He played for 20,000 this past summer at the same venue Dave Matthews played the next night. He got free tickets to see DMB too. Anyone want to hear him do a cover of DMB Crash?

[kayak]

$400 - $600 for bar gigs, some weddings, some private parties (weddings and private parties sometimes go up to $1200, but not often)

 

$1200 - $2500 for corporate gigs

[Blues In Me]

 

Originally posted by wheresgrant3 Absolutely!!!! Especially if you are asking more than the "average wage" of most bands. We've been very careful to raise our prices slowly over two years and our draw has more than justified it. However we did it on a careful balance of our reputation, talent and not on how many we draw. Upstate New York doesn't have much of a band circuit or club scene.... everything is DIY including booking marketing and sound and in most cases... draw. Very few places have an installed club crowd. We were smart and went after a local beer distributor and made friends with some DJ's at the local radio station. The result landed us a Budwesier sponsorship and title of "House Band" for the local radio station. That increased our marketability $$$ 10 fold. However as I said we raised our prices slowly... year after year. Most bands in our area get between $300-$500 depending on their rep and draw. To be fair most local bands don't draw more than 30 people. Three years ago, when I joined this band was a four piece making $400-600 per night and drawing on average 40-50 people. We added keys and we shifted the focus away from alternative rock to 80's music and dance and our crowd balloon to over 100 people per night. Now minimum is $900 (split 6 1/2 ways-5 band members, 1 manager/soundguy and two roadies) with the majority of the gigs in the $1000+ range. We have exclusives in three rooms... meaning we won't play anywhere else in town. Although some bar owners have grumbled, we confidently feel feel the extra expense justifies what we deliver. Given the amount of work, effort and expense we have invested to make this band more of an "event" than a regular bar band we ceratinly deserve more than $100 or $200 more than the band that doesn't draw anybody. The key is to book the rooms that can afford it and have their own crowd to be entertained (Not dependent on your draw). Although some clubs have dropped us because they couldn't afford the increase, many new clubs have tripped over themselves trying to book us.

 

 

My band plays in the same area as you and I know what you mean. We have raised our rates gradually over the last three years. We started at $300 and are now averaging between $400 and $500 at a bar.

 

We've been pretty inactive the last 6 months or so due to our bass player being sick and trying to finish grad school which has cut into our bar and club dates, but lately we've been playing a ton of private parties / events for between $500 and $1k. We've had so many requests lately that we have had to turn down 4 bookings so far and we are having a hard time squeezing in our regular gigs now. Our largest booking was for $2.5k for a corp gig where we were only scheduled to play 4 Rolling Stones songs as part of the kick-off for the company's new merger (titled Rolling Phones). There were probably 300 people there. Hopefully they keep us in mind for any upcoming events they might have. We are a 3 piece that plays Rock / Classic Rock and Blues.

[wheresgrant3]

Originally posted by Blues In Me My band plays in the same area as you and I know what you mean. We have raised our rates gradually over the last three years. We started at $300 and are now averaging between $400 and $500 at a bar. We've been pretty inactive the last 6 months or so due to our bass player being sick and trying to finish grad school which has cut into our bar and club dates, but lately we've been playing a ton of private parties / events for between $500 and $1k. We've had so many requests lately that we have had to turn down 4 bookings so far and we are having a hard time squeezing in our regular gigs now. Our largest booking was for $2.5k for a corp gig where we were only scheduled to play 4 Rolling Stones songs as part of the kick-off for the company's new merger (titled Rolling Phones). There were probably 300 people there. Hopefully they keep us in mind for any upcoming events they might have. We are a 3 piece that plays Rock / Classic Rock and Blues.

 

I totally remember you guys!!! We used to share the same room in Middletown... The Downtown. It was you and other kid and the 'slightly' older drummer dude. You guys were great. Very entertaining and you always had a nice "young" following. Do you still gig there? I haven't seen Garvey in 3-4 years.

 

Good luck with the corporate gig! They are hard to come by... but $2500 split 3 ways is a whole lotta gigs!!!

 

PM me if you are looking for rooms in the Newburgh area. I give booking recommendations for two rooms there and they are in need of some solid bands.

[Thundercranium]

I'm curious. You guys getting $400 a night - are you running your own sound? I can't imagine paying a soundman out of that gross.

 

The dilemma is, if you're doing your own sound at $400/night, you will probably stay at that level.

 

I don't want to offend those who do their own sound, but my experience is that there is simply no substitute for a knowledgeable sound tech with good gear. In my area that runs a minimum of $250/night. $150 between 3-5 people doesn't go very far!

[wheresgrant3]

They get $400 a night becuase that's the prevailing wage in Upstate NY.

 

 

We run our own sound for every gig. It's necessary... none of the rooms we play in except one has in-house sound. 2 JBL MP215's and 2 JBL JRX118S run through 3 Crown CE2000's (one amp runs the monitor mix) run 1200-1600 watts through a 20 channel Mackie mixing console. We play rooms that hold between 100-400 people max. This PA is overkill even for the largest we play. The entire backline is mic'd. Key's go direct through a submixer and DI. We've been giging so long we set it.... soundcheck, then forget it.

 

While I agree a dedicated sound guy would be ideal... it's not practical for DIY style gigs. Every band in this area does their own sound. We're one of the top draws in the area.... we would never hire a sound guy to do our sound (unless it was an event... then it would be the venue that will hire the sound guy)

 

Some of the best sounding bands I've ever heard were in a small room running a 6 channel powered mixer for vox, kick and snare. If a band sucks... a $250 sound guy and a mountain of equipment won't make any difference.

[srsfallriver]

 

Originally posted by Thundercranium I'm curious. You guys getting $400 a night - are you running your own sound? I can't imagine paying a soundman out of that gross. The dilemma is, if you're doing your own sound at $400/night, you will probably stay at that level. I don't want to offend those who do their own sound, but my experience is that there is simply no substitute for a knowledgeable sound tech with good gear. In my area that runs a minimum of $250/night. $150 between 3-5 people doesn't go very far!

 

 

Our guitarist runs sound and I (bassist) run the lights. I think we do a very good job with each and have no need or desire to hire someone to do these.