Doors, guarantees and merch: what a venue is actually offering

A guarantee is a fixed fee whatever the turnout. A door split is a percentage of ticket income, and its real value depends on whether the percentage comes off gross or after costs. Ask which, what is deducted, whether a threshold applies, and what the merch cut is, before agreeing to anything.

Four offers, one conversation

Venue offers sound casual and are not. Almost everything you will be offered is one of four structures, and the difference between them is entirely about who loses money if the room is quiet.

The third row is the one to ask for. It is a genuine option at a great many venues, it is rarely offered unprompted, and it costs the venue very little to agree to.

The four questions

A fifty-fifty door split can pay you half the ticket income or almost nothing, depending on the answers to these. Ask all four, in a message.

1. 1

   Is the percentage of gross or of net?

   Gross means the whole ticket take. Net means after the venue deducts costs. Both get described as fifty percent and they are completely different numbers.

2. 2

   Which costs come out first?

   Sound, security, door staff and sometimes a bar shortfall. Get the list and the amounts. This is where a good-looking deal quietly becomes a bad one.

3. 3

   Is there a threshold before I get anything?

   Many door deals only pay above a certain number of tickets. It is standard, it is rarely mentioned unprompted, and it is the most important thing to know.

4. 4

   Who sets the price, collects the money, and when do I get paid?

   If the venue collects, you are waiting on them. Agree the settlement terms at the same time as the split rather than raising it afterwards.

None of this is a trap being set for you. It is standard practice and the venue assumes you know. Asking reads as experienced rather than suspicious.

The same offer, two readings

Say a 100-capacity room, sixty tickets sold at twelve dollars. That is 720 dollars of ticket income, and you were offered fifty percent of the door.

Four defensible readings of the same sentence, and a spread from 360 dollars to nothing. This is why the answer matters more than the percentage.

Which to take, and when

Take the guarantee when you cannot predict your draw, which early on is always. Certainty is worth paying for and the fee is lower precisely because the venue is carrying your risk.

Move to a split once you know your number and it is comfortably above the threshold. At that point the venue is charging you for a risk that no longer exists, and you are paying for insurance you do not need.

Take room hire only when you are confident of selling out and can absorb the loss if you are wrong. It is the highest return and the only structure where a quiet Tuesday costs you money rather than merely earning you none.

Merch is often the bigger number

At small capacities, merchandise frequently out-earns the door, and performers treat it as an afterthought.

Forty people converting at one in six on a 25 dollar item is around 165 dollars. On the split above, that is more than several of the readings paid you for the performance itself.

• Ask about the merch cut when you agree the deal. Some venues take between ten and twenty-five percent, some take nothing at a small show, and it is more negotiable than door terms because it costs them nothing.
• Bring something under fifteen dollars. A cheap item half the room might buy beats an expensive one two people will.
• Put somebody else on the table. You will be talking to people, and the ten minutes right after you finish is when nearly all of it sells.
• Take cards. Cash-only loses more sales at a small show than performers ever realise.

Count what sold and at what price. Merch decisions made from memory are wrong about half the time.

The costs the deal never mentions

A deal describes what the venue pays you. It says nothing about what the night costs you, and acts frequently accept terms that look fine and then lose money on the difference.

Travel is the biggest one, particularly for a band. Four people and equipment across a city, or worse between cities, turns a 200 dollar guarantee into something considerably less by the time everyone is home.

• Travel and parking, for everyone, both directions. Count it per person rather than per band.
• Equipment hire or repair, if you are supplying anything the venue does not.
• Your own promotion. Design, print and any paid posts come out of your share, not the venue's.
• The hours. Load-in, soundcheck, waiting, playing, load-out is commonly six hours of your day for a twenty-minute set.

Work out your own break-even before you agree anything. If a deal only works when the room is full, it is not a deal worth taking, and knowing that in advance is what lets you ask for better terms without feeling awkward about it.

What no deal protects you from

Write it down

Send a short message summarising what you agreed the same day. The split, what is deducted, any threshold, the merch cut, and when you get paid.

You do not need a contract for a small show. You do need the terms to exist somewhere other than in two people's memory of a conversation, because the person settling up at one in the morning is frequently not the person you agreed with.

Keep your own count on the night as well. If your number and theirs disagree, the person with a written tally usually prevails and the one relying on recollection never does.