How should a band split gig money?

Most bands should split gig money equally after off-the-top expenses are paid, then adjust with a fixed weekly or monthly "point" for anyone doing extra unpaid work like booking or driving. The method matters less than having one, written down, before the night it actually gets tested.

The three splits bands actually use

Equal, off the gross. Four members, $800 gig, $200 each. Simple, but it ignores that one person spent all afternoon loading a van and another showed up with a guitar. Works fine for bands where the work is genuinely even.

Equal, after expenses. Gas, tolls, a shared hotel room, sound engineer fee — subtract those first, then split what's left equally. This is the most common approach because it stops the person who drove three hundred kilometres from quietly resenting the person who drove across town. Keep it simple: expenses come off the top, not off individual shares, or you'll spend more time doing math than you saved.

Points. Some bands add a fixed amount, not a percentage, for specific jobs: the person who books gigs gets an extra $50 a show, the person who owns and hauls the PA gets an extra $75, before the remainder splits evenly. Points work better as flat amounts than percentages because a percentage of a bad night is an insult and a percentage of a great night can get resented right back.

Pick one system and use it for every gig type — full band, acoustic duo, wedding set — rather than negotiating fresh each time. Renegotiating per gig is how bands end up arguing in a parking lot at midnight.

The person who owns the PA

This is the one that causes the most damage because it never gets discussed until someone's PA breaks and needs a $400 replacement part. Two fair options: pay that member a flat rental rate per gig (say $30–$50, whatever a comparable rental would cost locally) before the split, or agree that gear costs and gear ownership are separate from the money split entirely — the band owns the gear collectively and repairs come out of a shared fund. What doesn't work is an informal understanding that "we'll sort them out" when the amp dies. Decide the number when the PA is working, not when it's broken.

The sub who plays one show

A sub gets paid a flat fee agreed before the gig, not a share of the split. If the gig pays $800 and the regular member would have taken $200, offer the sub $150–$200 depending on rehearsal time required, and the rest of the band absorbs the difference or the fee comes off the top before the remaining members split it. Never offer a sub "a cut of whatever we get" — they have no way to verify it, no leverage to question it, and it makes the band look disorganized to someone you may want to call again. Agree the number in the message that books them, in writing, before they say yes.

Gas, rehearsal space, and other running costs

Treat these as band expenses, not personal ones, even when only one person incurs them. If the band rehearses in someone's garage for free, that's a favor, not a debt — don't try to monetize it after the fact. If the band rents a rehearsal space, that cost comes off gig income before the split, the same as gas. The mistake to avoid: reimbursing costs from whoever happens to have cash on hand at the gig, with no record. Six months later nobody agrees on who owes what, and by then it's not really about the money.

Why this has to happen before the good night, not after

Every band that has this argument has it after something went wrong — a no-show, a gear failure, a gig where one member did all the setup and everyone else walked in as doors opened. That is the worst possible time to design a fair system, because everyone is negotiating from frustration instead of agreement. The bands that never have this fight in public are the ones who wrote the split down while everyone was still getting along and nobody had anything to be resentful about. One page is enough: the method, the expense rule, the sub rate, and who owns what gear. Put it somewhere everyone can see it — a shared note, a group chat pin, printed and taped inside the van. It doesn't need a lawyer. It needs to exist before it's tested.

Once the split is decided, the harder problem is usually just getting paid on time and having a record of it for tax season. Roadshow's paid plans let you invoice a venue directly, mark it paid, and pull a year-end summary for an accountant — useful once splitting the money stops being the interesting problem and collecting it becomes the actual one.