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Door or the bar?

#2
I would have thought the landlord is more likely to be thinking, "Shall I charge them a percentage of the door or just a flat fee for gear hire, etc?"! I can't recall doing a gig where we saw any of the bar takings - some of that might be because it's much more difficult to figure out (money taken minus depletion of stock and bar staff wages).

If you get all the beans from the door then that's already a pretty good deal.

Wulf
 
#6
we might be fortunate, or just stupid, I dunno...
we never charge a cover. The places are cool with it, and we make decent $ at most of them. Never really thought the whole thing through though- I joined after they were well-established and the policy was in place.

What am I missing here?
Should we be charging covers?
I'd like to hear more on the subject.
 
#7
My personal rule: never agree to the door take, or any percentage thereof, unless you are willing to play for free. More often than not, the number of people who actually show isn't anywhere near what both sides expect, AND there is always, inevitably, and argument as to how many people came through the door. Even if you have your own guy counting, and the bar guy who check's ID's is taking the $$$, what do you do when you disagree on the number??? Fight with the people who run the bar, and never get to play there again???

So long as you ASSUME this is going to happen going in, AND are still willing to play if you get screwed, THEN go ahead and do it.
 
#8
Eric Moesle said:
My personal rule: never agree to the door take, or any percentage thereof, unless you are willing to play for free. More often than not, the number of people who actually show isn't anywhere near what both sides expect, AND there is always, inevitably, and argument as to how many people came through the door. Even if you have your own guy counting, and the bar guy who check's ID's is taking the $$$, what do you do when you disagree on the number??? Fight with the people who run the bar, and never get to play there again???

So long as you ASSUME this is going to happen going in, AND are still willing to play if you get screwed, THEN go ahead and do it.
Click to expand...

I used to skip the bars with reputations for doing that. It very rarely came up at the good places. At one placewe used to get offered 10% of the bar or 25% of the door. At 3$ a cover in a packed house, with the cover starting at ten, most of the people in the place before that, and the bar being 3 deep all night. I don't have to tell you that the owner used an accountant because he sucked at math.
 

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