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POV — COVER CHARGER VS GUARANTEE By: Lady Spitfire
Support your local scene. Because without them you wouldn’t have
your favorite bands.
You will pay $30 to $50 to go see a band play one song you heard on
the radio…. but you won’t pay $5 to $7 to see local bands?
Hmmm, this disturbs me. Terribly. It bothers me because these
bands have to make a living somehow.
The reason why venues pay cover charges is because they want the bands to be the DIY person
and bring the crowd to the bar. However, there are some that do a “NO COVER CHARGE” and
provide bands guarantees. So let’s look at the pros and cons and see if we can’t come to a reso-
lution…
Warren Jeffrey Motter of warrenjeffreymotter.com states “ I believe that a minimum guarantee
(with additional finds above and beyond for x number of attendees) is the best solution.”
Timothy J Bednarz, Gundacker Project : “No band should be given a guarantee. The cover
needs to be fair and the bands need to be paid fairly. Proof of performance should decide wage”
Greg Shaffer of The Factory Underground states “From a venue stand point, we definitely prefer
paying our acts off of cover charges. It would be wonderful to be able to give every group a guar-
antee but in today’s competitive music environment it would be difficult to stay in business if we
payed every band that simply brings their girlfriends a large lump sum.”
Ok, so we have the band standpoint, the management company standpoint, and of course the
venue standpoint. So let’s take to the fans because of course the bands want a guarantee ( and
please don’t take this the wrong way) because they don’t believe in the pay to play it’s more of
PROMOTE TO PLAY. You then have the management company who states that they should al-
so have a guarantee and I get that. But honestly I don’t see a guarantee being of value unless
the band comes to a happy medium as well. On the other side you have the venue that prefers
cover charges. I know that there are some venues that will pay extra if the venue makes out very
well, but not all venues are like that.
So here is what the fans have to say…..
CJ Marsicano of Hazleton, PA “I have a bit of a nightmare situation insofar as cover versions
from when I was in my last-ever cover band. In at least two different places we were playing for
the door, which would have been at least okay if it weren’t for one complication. In the two places
in question, the band would be in one part of the building where you’d have to get a charge to
come in, and there was another section (just a bar area) where one could see but not hear the
band – and not have to pay a cover charge to get into the bar. Guess where most of the people
were! Thankfully, karma intervened on both of these places, neither of which are operating any-
more.