How does each band member get paid fairly?

[headband]

We pretty much split the $$ equally. I supply a PA (when needed-about one out of three shows) and have a backup truck when needed (usually about 25% of shows), two others do the booking. I also buy and sell merchandise. As we are pretty spread out in location, we sometimes give the guys that have to travel a little more to help cover costs. The only member that doesn't contribute anything extra is the drummer and right now we are ok with that, although we have talked about giving him a bit smaller share.
Key thing is we talk about it and try to be fair and make it work for all.

 

[el murdoque]

IMO there's plenty of thought to be put on that topic.
First of all: Are you doing this for the cash or for the fun.
Second: Is there a chosen Band Leader or is the band deciding everything as a band.

If there is a person that does the booking and organizes things, money should be put away for that purpose.
If the Band is planning on getting and maintaining a PA, money should be put aside for that as well.
The rest should be split in equal terms for the rest of the band.
In my band, we also have a stash for other expenses as well, renting a room and such.

We have a constantly growing PA system that is partly owned by the drummer (who plays a cheap rig, btw) and we use a part of the money we earn to
invest in that. One guitard has boutique stuff ranging from a 1x12 combo to a full stack, several tube heads and a huge pedalboard with mostly boutique stuff.
The other plays a cheap guitar into a decent tube head with a cheap marshall 412. My rig is more than sufficient, my pedalboard is tiny but costly and my basses are good stuff as well. The singer's a poor lad that does not even own the mic he's singing through - that belongs to the band - and guess what - we split equally. As mentioned before, we keep a part of the money to cover for expenses that otherwise would be split equally as well.
This is run as a fun thing with none of us expecting to actually stepping back on the day job to earn more money with the band.

If this whole thing would be run as a buisnes in order to get money, one of us would need to invest a lot of time to manage bookings and such and this person would get paid for that time.

 

[bertthebassist]

I like Jazz Ad's idea best using 6 parts with a slight variation.
1 part for each member because you all worked hard to learn the songs and play the gig.
1 part to the owner of the PA system (which is your guitarist)
1 part to the person who booked the gig (which is sometimes the hardest part)

I do not like shared ownership of equipment. It creates unneeded tension when 1 or 2 members need to leave.
As far as electronic vs. standard drums, it depends on the music you are playing. Top 40 is more forgiving for electronic. Classic Rock sounds better with normal drums...IMO.
One advantage of electronic drums is that you can turn them down. On the other hand, now you need a better PA system to support the electronic drums.
The drummer needs to buy his own drums. I never met a drummer who didn't own his own set. Maybe he should buy something used to get going.

 

[TinIndian]

Equal shares period.

 

[MegaSwing]

Attempting to equalize everyone's capital investment against returns is simply not workable, if not downright Scrooge-like. No band could ever form under those circumstances, much less stay together.

For starters, no one could buy anything without reporting it to the band and/or getting approval. In what world is that ever going to happen?

Is it a band of equals or not? If not, it's time for you to provide all the instruments and management, and deal with your players as employees, not creative associates.

And good luck.

 

[ggunn]

Split the money evenly among bandmates without regard to travel distance to rehearsals, personal equipment usage, setup duties, etc. Otherwise you can create a bookkeeping nightmare for yourself with fights over every nickel, and at the end of it you will usually wind up right back at (or close to) an even split. If there are inequities between the requirements from band members, solve those.