Most gigs are booked over WhatsApp. One message with the fee, another with the date, maybe one more with the soundcheck time. No paper, no signature, and several important agreements that no one ever mentioned. On the drive home after the show, someone pulls out their phone and starts running the numbers. The conversation almost always ends the same way: 'At least we didn't lose money.' Which is a pretty sad thing to say about a night that was probably incredible.
The problem usually isn't the show. The problem is that many of the financial decisions had already been made when you said yes to that first message. Most of the time, you just didn't know it.
A chat books the gig but doesn't settle what matters
A WhatsApp message is technically proof of an agreement. What it doesn't cover: which expenses come off the top before your split is calculated, who approves a new line item on the night of the show, when you get paid, what the venue's promotion actually includes, whether there's space to sell merch. None of that appears in the chat where you agreed on your fee.
Musilock generates bilingual performance contracts for exactly this situation: the agreement an independent musician needs to sign before stepping on stage, not after coming home from it.
Your time counts even when no one pays for it
The most common mistake when evaluating a gig is subtracting travel costs from the fee and stopping there. The band's own time drops out of the equation entirely, and it can be the biggest cost of all.
A gig that leaves 200 euros after expenses but eats up roughly 20 hours, rehearsals, travel, soundcheck, the show, and the drive home, works out to about 10 euros an hour before taxes. There may be good reasons to take that gig. What shouldn't happen is finding that out the next day.
The math also shifts when you take on the box-office risk. If you're selling tickets yourself, covering production costs plus a fair fee for the whole band may require filling considerably more than half the venue. That estimate has to be grounded in something concrete: how many people came last time, an email list, something that lets you project from a real baseline.
Five things that need to be in writing before the show
You don't need a twenty-page contract. You do need at least these five things written down:
- The payment model. Flat fee, pure box office, or a guaranteed minimum plus a percentage. Each option distributes the risk differently. You need to know which one you're taking on.
- Deductible expenses. If there's a box-office split, which line items come out before your percentage is calculated, who approves them, and whether new costs can appear after the show. A 70% cut calculated on what's left after a list you never approved can look very different from what you expected.
- When you get paid. A deal that looks profitable on paper with 60-day payment terms and all expenses up front is a real cash-flow problem. If there's an advance, specify when it gets transferred.
- What the promotion includes. A venue having a mailing list doesn't mean they'll send an email about your show. If publicity is part of the deal, specify what gets done and when.
- Merch. Whether the venue takes a cut of your sales, and whether there will be space and staff to run the table while you're playing.
There's one more item almost no one puts in writing, even though it almost always applies: the public performance rights for the show. If you wrote the songs you're playing, there's money from that night that goes unclaimed simply because no one wrote it down.
Putting on the show yourself shifts the risk, it doesn't reduce it
Putting on your own show is sometimes pitched as total freedom: you set the stage, you keep the margin. That's partly true. But there's something that pitch leaves out: the moment you organize the event, you stop being a hired artist and become a promoter.
That means civil liability, insurance, capacity management, venue licenses, and hiring technical staff. The risk doesn't disappear, it changes hands, and those hands are yours. Before organizing a show on your own, especially in non-standard spaces, it's worth understanding what legal obligations you're taking on before you confirm the date.
Six questions before saying yes to the next gig
Some gigs are worth doing even when they don't pay off that night. A decent recording, a booker in the room, a new audience in a market where you want to grow, all of that has value. But there's a difference between knowing what you want out of a gig and putting it in the budget as if it's already happened. Before confirming any date, these six questions help you decide with real information:
- What does this night actually cost me, including my time and everyone else in the band?
- How many tickets need to sell for me to earn what I decided to charge?
- Which expenses come off before my split, and who decides if a new one shows up?
- When do I get paid, and what happens if ticket sales fall short or the show gets cancelled?
- What do I take away from this that lasts longer than the night: a recording, contacts, new people on my mailing list?
- If the answers above aren't good, what's stopping me from saying no?
The last one is the hardest. The music industry constantly repeats that you can't afford to turn down opportunities. But the toll of playing gig after gig without the numbers working also has a cost, and that cost comes due over time.
Thinking like a businessperson doesn't make you less of an artist
None of your favorite artists got anywhere without someone watching the numbers. Sometimes that someone was the artist themselves, and that part never gets told. Asking for clear terms before stepping on a stage doesn't contradict loving what you do. Precisely because performing matters, the economics around it deserve attention.
In markets like Spain, venue circulation programs, public grants, and municipal touring circuits can completely change the numbers on a tour. That's information worth more than any motivational advice.
With a Musilock performance contract, all of those terms are written down in both languages before you confirm the date. No lawyer required, no conditions to piece together from a chat.