It's 1:40 AM. The promoter hands your singer an envelope. Everybody's ears are ringing, the van smells like fog juice, and somebody says the most dangerous sentence in rock and roll: "So... how much is that each?"

Plenty of bands have imploded over that envelope. Usually not because anyone's a crook, but because nobody agreed on the order of operations before the show. Gross isn't pay. Here's how to get from the envelope to everyone's cut the same way every time, plus a five-line agreement you can paste into the group chat tonight.

Gross isn't yours: what comes off before anyone gets paid

The number on the settlement sheet is the band's gross. Before it becomes anybody's beer money, the night's costs come out. The whole band benefits from getting the show on, so the whole band shares those costs before splitting.

Agent cut, venue merch cut, sound guy, gas (order of operations)

Settle in this order:

1. Add up what came in. Guarantee, your share of the door, merch sales.
2. Commission. If an agent or booker takes a percentage, check your agreement for what income it applies to. A common setup applies it to performance money (guarantee + door), not merch. Some band tools, like BandTally's settlement guide, work it that way too, but your contract decides.
3. Venue merch cut. Some rooms take a percentage of merch sales. Ask before load-in, not at the table.
4. Gig costs. Gas, parking, tolls, lodging, food the band agreed to cover, the sound tech or fill-in you hired, ticketing or card fees, and what your merch cost you. That last one gets forgotten constantly. You sold $450 of shirts, sure, but you paid for those shirts.
5. Band fund, then the split (more on both below).

Pay back whoever fronted the gas first

If your drummer put gas on their card, the gas is a gig cost in step 4. That drummer then gets the money back on its own line, separate from their share. Payback isn't pay. Keep it separate or someone ends up paid twice or not at all. (BandCalendar's payments guide puts it simply: whoever fronts a cost gets to recover it before the fee is split.)

Guarantee, door deal, or "versus": know what you actually got paid

You can't split money you misread. Three common deal types:

• Guarantee: a flat fee no matter who shows up. The venue carries the risk of a dead night; your upside is capped.
• Door deal: a percentage of ticket money, no floor. "70/30" usually means 70% to the band. Always ask 70% of what? Gross ticket money, or what's left after the venue's costs?
• Versus deal ("$200 vs. 70% of the door"): you get whichever is higher, not both added together. It's a floor with upside, and it's a completely normal thing to ask for. (Infract's deal calculator walks through the mechanics.)

Before you even book the show, the pre-show math lives in How to Know If Your Next Gig Will Make Money. This piece is the night-of, envelope-in-hand part.

Four split models bands actually use

Pick one. Write it down. Change it between shows, never during settlement.

Equal split

Everyone who played gets the same share of what's left. Simplest, hardest to argue with, and what most DIY bands start with. It's also what the free calculator does.

Leader/booker fee off the top

The person doing the emails, advancing the show and chasing the payment takes a set amount or percentage before the equal split. Booking is real work. Paying for it out loud beats letting it rot into resentment.

Gear/PA stipend

If one member hauls the PA, their car, or a backline everyone uses, pay a flat stipend per show as a gig cost. Wear and tear is real; inventing it at 2 AM is how fights start.

Fixed rate for fill-ins/subs

Hired players usually get a flat fee agreed before the gig, counted as a cost. Members split the rest. If you'd rather give a sub a full share, fine, just say so up front.

The band fund: skim before you split

Take a slice of the net for the band itself: strings, a new banner, the next van repair, the session deposit, covering a show that loses money. There's no magic percentage. Pick one the whole band agrees on and take it off every show before splitting. The habit matters more than the number.

Merch money: split it or feed the fund?

Merch is band money unless you've agreed otherwise. Three common setups:

• Merch profit goes in the pot and gets split with everything else.
• Merch profit feeds the fund, so the next shirt run pays for itself.
• Merch cost gets paid back first to whoever bought the stock, then profit goes in the pot or fund.

Whatever you pick, use merch profit (sales minus what the stuff cost you), not sales. And if someone sells their own side merch, settle that separately.

Worked example (EXAMPLE numbers, real math)

Hypothetical four-piece, hypothetical Saturday. Every number below is made up.

Money in (EXAMPLE): - Guarantee: $300 - Door: $10 tickets, 50 paid, 80% to the band = $400 - Merch sales: $450 - Total in: $1,150

Money out (EXAMPLE): - Booker commission: 10% of guarantee + door ($700) = $70 - Merch cost: $180 - Gas: $120 (fronted by the drummer) - Parking: $20 - Sound tech: $60 - Fees: $15 - Food: $50 - Total out: $515

Net: $1,150 − $515 = $635. Split four ways straight up, that's $158.75 each.

Now apply a written formula: drummer gets the $120 gas back first (already counted as a cost, so it's not extra profit), 10% goes to the band fund ($63.50), and the remaining $571.50 splits four ways: $142.875 each. Cents don't divide evenly, so three people get $142.87 and one gets $142.89, or round down and drop the odd cents in the fund. Decide once.

Result: the drummer gets $120 + $142.87, everyone else gets $142.87, and the band has $63.50 toward the next set of drumheads. Nobody's owed, nobody's owing.

Run your own numbers

The free Gig Profit Calculator needs no signup. Enter guarantee, ticket / door price, expected paid attendance, your door split, merch sales and merch cost, your costs (travel, parking, lodging, crew, fees, agent/booker commission as a percentage, food, everything else) and People splitting the net (it defaults to 1, so set it to your band size). The results show your net profit, each member's cut and your break-even paid attendance, plus the full math: door to band, total income, commission and total expenses.

Four things to do by hand: - Band fund: take your percentage off the net, then divide the rest by members. - Paybacks: hand fronted amounts back to whoever paid them. - Versus deals: the calculator adds guarantee and door together, so don't enter both. Run it once with only the guarantee and once with only the door, and use the higher net. That's what a "vs." deal pays. - A venue merch cut has no dedicated field; put it in "Fees" or "Everything else."

Plug tonight's numbers in. The calculator shows every member's cut. No signup.

Write it down: a 5-line band money agreement (copy-paste)

Paste this into the group chat, fill the blanks, and get a thumbs-up from everyone before the next show:

OUR BAND MONEY DEAL (agreed ____ / ____ / ____)
1. Gig costs (gas, parking, food, crew, merch cost, commission) come off the top.
2. Anyone who fronted a cost gets paid back first, on its own line.
3. ____% of net goes to the band fund. Fund pays for: ________.
4. Leader/booker fee: $____ per show (or none). Fill-ins: flat $____, agreed before the gig.
5. The rest splits equally between members who played, settled same night or by ____.

Changing a line takes a vote before a show, never after anyone's seen the envelope.

Then keep the receipts somewhere that isn't a shoebox

Once you're settling after every show, you want a running record of what each gig paid, what it cost and what's in the fund. Sonic DIY gives your band a free workspace with gigs, finances, setlists, a calendar, tasks and an EPK in one place.

Log every gig's money in a free band workspace

And before your next show, run the deal through the free Gig Profit Calculator so the envelope never surprises you.

FAQ

Should expenses come out before or after splitting gig pay?

Before. Shared gig costs come off the top because the whole band benefits from them. Anyone who fronted a cost gets it paid back on a separate line, apart from their share.

Does the agent percentage come off gross or net?

It depends on your agreement. A common setup is a percentage of performance money (guarantee plus door) before expenses, with merch left out. Check your contract and use what it says.

What is a versus deal?

A versus deal, such as "$200 vs. 70% of the door," pays whichever is higher, the guarantee or the door percentage. You don't get both added together.

How do you pay a sub or fill-in musician?

Agree on a flat fee with them before the gig and count it as a gig cost. The members then split what's left. If you'd rather give a sub a full equal share, agree to that up front.

Should merch money be split between band members?

Only merch profit, meaning sales minus what the merch cost. Bands either split it with the rest of the net or put it in the band fund. Pick one and write it down.

What if someone fronted money for the gig?

Count it as a gig cost, then pay that person back first on its own line, separate from their share, so nobody gets paid twice or not at all.

Planning estimate, not financial, tax or legal advice. Every dollar figure in this article is a hypothetical EXAMPLE.