The Local Promoter's Contract With a Band (One Page, Free)

A local show agreement isn't about distrust. It's about the fact that a booking made in March, over messages, will be performed in September by people who remember it differently — and about giving both sides something to point at when a band pulls out two days before.

One page covers it.

What has to be on it

• Who, where, when. Band's legal entity or full names, venue, date, and the times: load-in, soundcheck, doors, stage time, curfew. Stage time is the one that generates arguments.

• Set length. "45 minutes" prevents both the band who plays 25 and the band who plays 80 while the venue's licence expires.

• The money. Guarantee, split percentage, or versus deal, stated in a way that a stranger could compute. See guarantee vs door split vs versus.

• When and how they're paid. Cash at settlement, transfer within seven days, whatever it is. "After the show" is not a term.

• What you provide. PA, engineer, backline, lights. And what you don't.

• Guest list allocation. A number. See running the door.

• Merch terms. Whether the venue takes a cut, the rate, and whether it applies to recorded music as well as apparel. Say it here and it can't appear at settlement.

The cancellation ladder

This is the clause that earns the document. Without it, a band pulling out ten days before a show you've promoted for a month is a pure loss and a personal argument.

A workable ladder, in both directions:

• More than 30 days out — either party can cancel without penalty.

• 7 to 30 days — cancelling party covers documented costs already incurred.

• Inside 7 days — the fee is payable in full, or half, depending on what you agreed.

• Force majeure — genuine emergencies, illness, venue closure. Nobody pays; deposits are returned. Define it, because otherwise every cancellation becomes one.

Bands are sometimes wary of this clause until they realise it protects them too — a promoter who pulls a show inside a week owes them.

The clauses people forget

• Recording. Whether the show can be filmed or streamed, and by whom. Increasingly worth stating.

• Support acts. Who chooses them. A headliner who expects approval and doesn't get it will say so on the night.

• Equipment liability. Whose insurance covers what. Usually the venue's for the venue's gear, the band's for theirs.

• Rider cap. A number, not "reasonable hospitality."

Keep it short and send it fast

A three-page contract for a $300 show doesn't get read or signed. One page, plain language, sent within an hour of agreeing the booking — while the band is still in the conversation — is the version that comes back signed.

Musavise's agreements tool generates a performance agreement with the fee structure, deposit, set length, cancellation ladder, guest list and equipment terms already in it, in language both sides can read, and e-signs it free with the signed version frozen so neither party can revise it afterwards.

All of it lives in one free Musavise account — free means free, within honest limits, and your data exports whenever you want it. Create your free account; it takes about two minutes.