The One-Page Gig Contract Every DIY Band Should Use

The horror stories all rhyme: a text-message booking, a canceled night two days out, no deposit, no recourse, and a hole in the tour budget. Working performers who use contracts report the opposite of what bands fear — venues generally respect a short, clear one-pager. It signals you'll show up professional.

The clauses that earn their ink

• The basics: date, venue, set length, load-in and soundcheck times, and when the set actually starts

• Payment timing: the fee, and that the balance is due on or before the day of the show — before you play

• A deposit: commonly around half for private events; even a token deposit changes cancellation psychology

• A cancellation ladder: e.g. 50% of the fee if canceled within a week, 100% within 48 hours

• Force majeure: illness, weather, venue closure — deposit returned, nobody sues anybody

• Equipment liability: the venue provides safe power and answers for damage its side causes

• Your rider by reference: attach the stage plot and input list so tech needs are part of the deal

Don't stop at the gig contract

The same afternoon you set this up, close the other handshake deals: split sheets for anything co-written (unsigned splits default to equal ownership under copyright law), a featured-artist agreement for guests (without one, your guest may co-own the master), and a session release for hired players.

All six agreements are free in Musavise — plain-language, generated from a short form, with unlimited typed-name e-signing where commercial tools cap free plans at three requests a month. Send each party a private sign link; the first signature freezes the text so everyone signs the same words. Generate yours in the agreement generator, and log the show in the gig tracker so the deposit and balance are tracked to the dollar.

Everything above lives in one free Musavise account — no credit card, no trial clock, and your data exports any time you want it. Create your free account and it's yours in about two minutes.