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Should the guy pulling the trailer get gas money?

#82
jmattbassplaya said:
No one was saying there were no costs associated to it. Rather, no one else has complained about those costs when they were towing it/buying it, and as such it's silly for the new driver to complain about it now when he was getting those services for free before. The others picked up the :eyebrow: cost before then, and now it's his turn to 'take the hit'.
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Damn. The way you put it is so easy to understand, why is there this debate??? :D
 
#85
jaywa said:
We have a 5-man band and our BL owns the P.A., the lights, the trailer that hauls it all, the SUV that pulls the trailer (and rides the band), and he also does all the bookings.

What we do is, the BL gets paid for the gig, takes however much off the top it took for gas, and then splits the remainder out 6 ways (2 cuts for him and 1 for each of the rest of us). That extra 16.6% he gets of the net covers his ownership/maintenance costs of the production gear and vehicle, and the booking... which is pretty much a steal considering the typical booking agent would take 20% off the top alone.

All but one of us have been in many bands before this one, and we all agree that this is by far the most equitable arrangement we've ever worked under, and nobody ever comes away from a gig feeling they got shorted on anything.

May not work for everyone but it works fine for us.
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+1 for this band. If all bands did this imagine how less stressful the rest of being in a band would be? Bravo to you guys.
 
#86
In most bar bands, I don't think anyone I have ever played with would like anything other than an equal split and the band pays expenses as we go. I agree the BL who books should get more money, but it the bass player sucked the band wouldn't get rebooked. Should you get paid on inital gigs or every bookings?
 
#88
troy mcclure said:
In most bar bands, I don't think anyone I have ever played with would like anything other than an equal split and the band pays expenses as we go. I agree the BL who books should get more money, but it the bass player sucked the band wouldn't get rebooked. Should you get paid on inital gigs or every bookings?
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I have never understood the reasoning behind why the booker should get paid more. I tend to book half the gigs for my group and don't really see how calling or sending an email to a venue is so stressful or daunting on a person that they deserve an extra cut of gig money. And heck, after a certain point when your band becomes a bit of a name around town, venues start contacting you for gigs. Once you get there you really don't have to do any work, whatsoever.
 
#89
jmattbassplaya said:
I have never understood the reasoning behind why the booker should get paid more. I tend to book half the gigs for my group and don't really see how calling or sending an email to a venue is so stressful or daunting on a person that they deserve an extra cut of gig money. And heck, after a certain point when your band becomes a bit of a name around town, venues start contacting you for gigs. Once you get there you really don't have to do any work, whatsoever.
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Why?
If you're sending thank you cards, meeting with the contacts... sending contracts etc it all adds up to time and expense.

When the money situation goes wrong or there's a complaint, the person being commissioned should be dealing with it.

In most bands, this becomes one or maybe two people.

====

If it were truely this easy - all of our bandmates would be doing it.
 
#91
MNAirHead said:
Why?
If you're sending thank you cards, meeting with the contacts... sending contracts etc it all adds up to time and expense.

When the money situation goes wrong or there's a complaint, the person being commissioned should be dealing with it.

In most bands, this becomes one or maybe two people.

====

If it were truely this easy - all of our bandmates would be doing it.
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Not really. We live in a digital age where our ability to contact anyone is no more than a few key strokes away. All it took me was about 20-30 minutes to writeup an email which included our band name, our price, our contact info, and links to our promo pages. This one email can be used time and time again for any venue we're interested in contacting. The only thing I need to change when contacting someone new is the heading and name of the person I'm writing to.

Likewise with thank you emails, all I have to do is change the name of the venue and the person I'm writing towards. I always include a link with our gig schedule attached to it, and I ask them to refer to it if they'd like to book us again in the future. The amount of effort it takes is so ridiculously small compared to what our advertising guy does (creating flyers, printing them, hanging them up, etc...) that if he were to ask for a larger cut of gig money I'd be more inclined to give him it than take one for myself.

In addition, once your band is somewhat established in a city, venues will start contacting you before you ever even try to contact them. At that point the only real difficulty comes with establishing whether or not every band member is open for any given date. But even still, the leg work is basically nonexistent except for contacting out of town venues, and even then I still have that catch-all, master email that works just fine even for those gigs.

I can't speak for every band out there, but if certain members aren't interested in booking gigs then it probably has more to do with them either being shy in nature or just incredibly lazy. It's really not that hard of a thing to do, and it's really not that time consuming - at least in this digital age.
 
#92
jmatt - If you were successfully booking our gigs and didn't want an extra cut, I'd be fine with that.
What I have found, though, is that most musicians aren't very good at booking gigs - whether it's motivation of follow-through or whatever - and the ones who are are so great to have. I'm not good at booking gigs myself, so when I'm in a band with someone who is, I want them to stay good and motivated to do it. "Take some extra as a booker's fee" is the best way I know to do that, in addition to simply saying thanks now and again.
 
#93
jmattbassplaya said:
Not really. We live in a digital age where our ability to contact anyone is no more than a few key strokes away. All it took me was about 20-30 minutes to writeup an email which included our band name, our price, our contact info, and links to our promo pages. This one email can be used time and time again for any venue we're interested in contacting. The only thing I need to change when contacting someone new is the heading and name of the person I'm writing to.

Likewise with thank you emails, all I have to do is change the name of the venue and the person I'm writing towards. I always include a link with our gig schedule attached to it, and I ask them to refer to it if they'd like to book us again in the future. The amount of effort it takes is so ridiculously small compared to what our advertising guy does (creating flyers, printing them, hanging them up, etc...) that if he were to ask for a larger cut of gig money I'd be more inclined to give him it than take one for myself.

In addition, once your band is somewhat established in a city, venues will start contacting you before you ever even try to contact them. At that point the only real difficulty comes with establishing whether or not every band member is open for any given date. But even still, the leg work is basically nonexistent except for contacting out of town venues, and even then I still have that catch-all, master email that works just fine even for those gigs.

I can't speak for every band out there, but if certain members aren't interested in booking gigs then it probably has more to do with them either being shy in nature or just incredibly lazy. It's really not that hard of a thing to do, and it's really not that time consuming - at least in this digital age.
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If it were this easy bands would be paid more, treated better and booked more often... And gigs would be equally booked by a members
 
#94
as for booking:

You still have to do your homework...The messages we get with "dear sir" get sent to the bottom of the pile. The message that calls us out by name, or previous engagement get our attention first. It helps to know whom you are addressing. Maybe a phone call.
When booking a two week field trip, that might involve 40-60venues, maybe more...
Maybe contacting other local acts for tour support. That takes time.

Whether you want to do this work "on the clock" yer choice.

didn't this thread have something to do with gas?
 
#95
MNAirHead said:
If it were this easy bands would be paid more, treated better and booked more often... And gigs would be equally booked by a members
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I don't see how that has any correlation with the amount of work a booker does :confused: And again, some people just aren't as socially 'talented', so it makes sense why some people would prefer to avoid booking in favor of other jobs.
 
#96
An update on the guy pulling the trailer..if you didn't guess he is the drummer:
Last night at the end of the gig, he was in a really awful mood elevated by alcohol and he looks at the tip jar and says "So is that mine?" I said well I think we all better discuss that.
he said if you don't start giving me gas money, I am done pulling the trailer.
I said well that would suck, I guess we will have to pay a sound guy every gig and we will all make even less..he said well if that happens I will just stay home.
I said, before we had the trailer when me and the singer each carried half the gear, we never once asked for any extra gas money.

I really wasn't trying to be a smart ass, but honestly no one pays to rent my PA, the lights or my trailer (My fault, perhaps but we are not making major cash)
No one pays the singer or I for booking the gigs, nor do I ever ask for money to pay for flyers.

I guess if he wants to hold us hostage for the gas money we will have to pay until we find an alternative method of getting our stuff to the gig and a different ass on the drum throne.
 
#97
jmattbassplaya said:
I don't see how that has any correlation with the amount of work a booker does :confused: And again, some people just aren't as socially 'talented', so it makes sense why some people would prefer to avoid booking in favor of other jobs.
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Unfortunately this is part of business management --- I know a ton of companies that the sales staff makes more than the owner

"Socially talented" excuse is erased by websites and email

without booking the band is just a daydream - touring the basement and garage
 
#98
troy mcclure said:
An update on the guy pulling the trailer..if you didn't guess he is the drummer:
Last night at the end of the gig, he was in a really awful mood elevated by alcohol and he looks at the tip jar and says "So is that mine?" I said well I think we all better discuss that.
he said if you don't start giving me gas money, I am done pulling the trailer.
I said well that would suck, I guess we will have to pay a sound guy every gig and we will all make even less..he said well if that happens I will just stay home.
I said, before we had the trailer when me and the singer each carried half the gear, we never once asked for any extra gas money.

I really wasn't trying to be a smart ass, but honestly no one pays to rent my PA, the lights or my trailer (My fault, perhaps but we are not making major cash)

No one pays the singer or I for booking the gigs, nor do I ever ask for money to pay for flyers.

I guess if he wants to hold us hostage for the gas money we will have to pay until we find an alternative method of getting our stuff to the gig and a different ass on the drum throne.
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I’m assuming this (what I bolded in your quote) was also mentioned to him, all of which he should be able to have figured that all out himself.

I’m thinking he really doesn’t care to gig too much, and maybe even subconsciously he’s looking for a way to either make it better or get out.
 

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