Take shared costs off the top first
The single most common cause of band money arguments is splitting the gross. Someone fronts the PA hire, someone else fills the tank to get to a regional gig, and the drummer quietly resents both. The fix is simple: settle shared expenses before anyone gets paid, then split what's left.
So the order of operations for a $1,000 gig is:
- Gross fee: what the venue actually paid the band.
- Minus shared costs: PA/lighting hire, fuel and tolls, the booking agent's cut, a sound engineer, accommodation on an away run.
- Equals the distributable pool: the number you actually divide.
If that $1,000 gig cost $200 in PA hire and $80 in fuel, you're splitting $720, not $1,000. Reimburse whoever paid the $280 first (back to their own pocket), then divide the remaining $720. Nobody is out of pocket for carrying the band, and the split is honest.
Keep the receipts attached to the gig
When the bass player pays for fuel, scan the receipt with GearGrabber on the spot. It becomes an expense in Finances against that gig's Calendar event, so when you reconcile the night's takings the shared costs are already itemised and nobody is relying on memory.
Equal vs weighted: pick a rule and name it
Once you have the distributable pool, you need a rule for dividing it. There are only two honest approaches, and the trouble starts when a band uses one but pretends it's the other.
Equal splits are the default for a reason. Four members, four equal shares. It's transparent, it's fast, and it signals that everyone's contribution matters the same on the night. Most pub and function bands should just do this and move on.
Weighted splits make sense when contributions genuinely differ, but only if the weighting is agreed in advance and written down. Legitimate reasons to weight a share up:
- Gear and PA: the member who owns the $6,000 PA and trailers it to every gig is effectively renting it to the band. Pay that as a fixed line item off the top (a hire fee) rather than fudging it into their performance share. It's cleaner and it's a real, deductible expense.
- Transport: the person driving their own van to every regional show is incurring real cost and wear. A per-kilometre allowance off the top is fairer than a bigger slice.
- Lead or role load: the booker who chases venues, sends invoices and herds everyone to load-in is doing unpaid work. A small leader loading (say 5–10%) is defensible if the band agrees it.
- Number of songs/spots: for variety nights where members play different amounts.
The principle: pay gear, transport and admin as named line items off the top wherever you can, and keep the performance split itself as simple as possible underneath. That way a weighting is never a mystery.
Weighting creep is real
A 5% leader loading plus a 5% songwriter bump plus a gear fee plus a transport allowance can quietly leave one member with 70% of a four-piece's takings. Add up every weighting against a real gig figure before you commit, and sanity-check that the lowest-paid member still thinks it's fair.
Set the split once in Crescender, not every gig
This is exactly what a band's shared finances are for. Rather than recalculating shares on a napkin after every show, set the rule once and let it apply.
Add every member to the Band Each performer gets a profile and a role. Deps and regular subs can be added too, so their share is tracked the same way as a permanent member.
Record the gig fee against the event Log the gross in Finances as income tied to the gig's Calendar event, so income, the setlist and the date all sit together.
Enter shared costs as expenses first PA hire, fuel, agent's cut. These come off before the split, and GearGrabber receipts back them up.
Choose the split method Equal divides the remaining pool evenly. Percentage applies your agreed weighting. Custom handles one-offs, like the night only the guitarist's broken cable needed replacing.
Because the calendar, gear and finances are shared across the band, every member can see the same numbers. Transparency is what kills the drama; nobody is wondering what the venue really paid or where the fuel money went.
Performance pay is not songwriting royalties
This is where otherwise functional bands fall out years later, so separate the two streams from day one.
Performance income is the gig fee. It's earned by everyone who played the show, and it's reasonable to split it among the people on stage that night, deps included.
Songwriting and publishing royalties are different in kind. They're earned by whoever wrote the song, no matter who performs it, and they keep paying long after a member leaves. In Australia these typically flow through your PRO and publishing collection (APRA AMCOS) to the registered writers, not to the band as a unit. A hired drummer on a cover-band gig has earned a share of tonight's fee; they have not earned a share of the singer's original song's royalties for the next 30 years.
Practical rule: split tonight's performance money in the band's shared Finances, but track writing splits separately per song, and register those splits with APRA AMCOS against each title. Agree the writing percentages when the song is written, while everyone remembers who brought the chorus, not three albums later.
Log writing splits with the song
Keep each original's agreed writing percentages in your Music repertoire notes alongside the chart and key. When you register the work with APRA AMCOS, the numbers are already settled and consistent with what the band agreed.
Tax, ABNs and paying deps fairly
A band usually isn't a single taxpayer. In most Australian originals and covers acts, each member is paid their share as an individual and declares it themselves.
- Each member needs their own ABN if they're being paid for music as a business or sole trader, and should quote it when invoicing. Without an ABN, the payer may have to withhold 47% under the no-ABN rule.
- GST is per member. A member only charges GST if they're individually registered (required at $75,000+ turnover). One registered member doesn't make the whole band registered.
- Deps and subs should be paid their agreed share or fee for the night and given the figure in writing. A dep is responsible for their own tax; pay them the same way you'd want to be paid as a sub, promptly and clearly documented.
At year end, export your share of the band's income and expenses from Finances as a CSV for your own return. The band's shared records show the gross and the splits; your CSV shows the slice that's yours to declare.
Put it in a one-page agreement
A short written agreement, who splits what, how gear and transport are paid, how writing royalties are handled, and what happens when someone leaves, prevents almost every band money fallout. It doesn't need a lawyer to start; it needs everyone to sign the same page before there's real money on the table.
Fair-split checklist
- [ ] Shared costs (PA, fuel, agent) come off the top before any split
- [ ] Gear and transport paid as named line items, not hidden in shares
- [ ] Split method (equal/weighted) agreed and written down
- [ ] Weightings sanity-checked against a real gig figure
- [ ] Performance pay tracked separately from songwriting royalties
- [ ] Writing percentages agreed per song and registered with APRA AMCOS
- [ ] Every member (and dep) has an ABN and handles their own GST/tax
- [ ] One-page band agreement signed by everyone
Get the order of operations right, write the rules down once, and band money stops being the thing that breaks up the band.