How much does a dep get paid in the UK?

Nobody sets the rate for a dep. There is no standard one, and most UK function bands pay a dep either what a member would have taken home for the night or a fixed dep fee agreed beforehand, with travel on top. The member who is being covered normally does the paying. What matters far more than the number is that you both knew it before the gig.

That sounds evasive, and it is the honest answer to a question that gets asked in every forum thread about depping. This post is about what lies behind it: who actually decides, the three ways bands do it, how travel fits in, who pays whom, and what to agree before you say yes. If you are new to the word itself, the glossary entry for a dep is the short version and what is a dep the long one.

Who sets what a dep gets paid?

Nobody in particular, and that is the whole difficulty. A function band's fee for the night comes from the client or the agency, and it is split between the players. A dep is not on that list. A dep is somebody a member chooses to cover their chair, which makes the dep's pay a private arrangement between two people: the member and the dep.

There is no rule a band has to follow. Rates differ by instrument, by region, by how much material there is to learn, and by whether it is a quiet Tuesday or a Saturday in December. Anyone who quotes you one fixed figure has only seen their own corner of the circuit.

What a band can do is have a habit, so that a member who needs cover does not make a new decision every time. Bands that deps well usually have one, and it is almost always one of the three below.

What are the three ways bands pay a dep?

One: the same as a member's share for the night. The dep takes what the member would have taken. It is the simplest rule to explain, and it feels fair to everyone, because the dep is doing exactly the member's job. The downside is that the number moves with the gig: a big wedding pays the dep more than a small function does.

Two: a fixed dep fee. A flat amount, agreed beforehand, that does not change with the size of the pot. This suits bands where the gig fees vary a lot, or where a dep is usually somebody who knows the material well and needs no preparation. The downside is that the member can end up keeping more on a good night, or paying out of their own pocket on a poor one.

Three: whatever the member and the dep agree, gig by gig. This is the loosest, and it is how a lot of bands drift into doing it. It works when the same few people cover each other and trust each other. It tends to fall apart the first time two players remember it differently.

None of the three is wrong. The mistake is not choosing one. If your band has no habit, suggest the first.

Does a dep get paid for travel?

Almost always, and the question is only how. Somebody drove to the venue, and if it was the dep, the journey needs covering.

Where a band takes everyone's travel out of the pot before splitting what is left, the dep's travel simply goes into that sum, worked out from the dep's own postcode rather than the member's. That is the part people forget. The member lives nearby, the dep lives two hours away, and the band's figures should reflect the dep's drive, because the dep made it. There is more on how that works in the glossary entry for travel and mileage.

Two things to settle in plain words:

• Is travel on top of the fee, or included? If a fixed dep fee is quoted, ask whether it already covers the drive.
• Whose postcode is it worked from? The dep's, as a rule, and the member should ask for it as part of asking them.

A far-away dep makes every share on that gig slightly smaller. It is usually modest, but tell whoever runs the band before the statement does.

Who pays whom?

In most UK function bands the chain runs in one direction: the band pays the member as though they had played, and the member pays the dep. The band's books stay the same shape every gig, a person who is not in the band does not appear on its statements, and the dep deals with one person, the one who asked them.

The full arithmetic is in what a dep actually costs you, and who pays whom. If your band pays a dep directly instead, write that down, so the member's share is not paid out twice.

What does that look like with round numbers?

A four-piece band, a fee of £800 for the night, no manager's cut, so £800 is the pot. One of the four cannot make it and sends a dep. The dep lives a good way off: the band works their travel out at £20.

Pot	£800
Dep's travel, taken off the top	−£20
Left to split four ways	£780
Each player's equal share	£195

If the band's habit is the same as a member's share, the band pays the member £195 plus the £20 travel, £215 in all, and the member passes the lot on. The dep takes home £215 and the member keeps nothing, which is tidy and easy to explain.

If the habit is a fixed dep fee of £150, the member passes on £150 plus the £20 travel, £170. The dep takes home £170, and the member keeps the £45 difference.

Same gig, same band, two honest answers, £45 apart. Neither is a standard rate. Which one applies depends on what the two people agreed. The figures are round numbers chosen to make the sums easy to follow, nothing more. Your own fee and postcodes will give different ones, and the free gig pay split calculator will work them out to the penny.

What should you agree before you say yes?

Whether you are the member asking or the dep being asked, four lines in a message, sent at the start:

• The fee. A flat number, or "the same as a member's share for the night", and if it is the second, who is working it out.
• Travel. On top or included, and whose postcode it is worked from.
• When you will be paid, and by whom. The member, usually, and on roughly what date. Bands that pay out weeks after the gig should say so up front.
• What happens if it is cancelled. A fortnight out, or on the day. Agree it while it is still a hypothetical question and nobody is cross.

If you are the dep, add the practical ones: how much material there is, whether there is a paid rehearsal, and when the setlist and keys are coming. The longer list is in dep etiquette: how to get asked back. None of it has to be a negotiation.

When should a dep ask for more?

Sooner than they think, and always at the point of being asked, never afterwards. There are a handful of good reasons:

• There is a lot to learn. A long set list with other people's arrangements is real preparation, in your own time.
• It is a premium date. New Year's Eve or a bank holiday is not a quiet Wednesday.
• The drive is long. If the journey eats most of the day, make sure the travel money reflects it.
• There is a rehearsal. Unpaid time before the gig is still time.
• It is short notice. Being asked the day before is a favour.

It does not have to be awkward. "I would love to, and for that set list I would need X" is a perfectly ordinary sentence. A dep who says yes and resents the number later is the one who does not get asked back.

Keeping the record

Whatever you agree, write it down once: the gig and the date, who covered whom, what was agreed, and whether you have settled. A line or two stops the conversation six weeks later that begins "I thought we said" before it can start.

If you play in a band that uses Event Band Manager, the gig page shows who is covering whom, the dep's travel is worked out from their own postcode, and the member has an I've paid them button, so settled is a recorded fact rather than a feeling. There is more about the player's side on the page for musicians, and the whole list of what the app does is on features.

The short version

There is no standard dep rate, only three habits: the same as a member's share, a fixed dep fee, or whatever the two of you agree. Travel is almost always on top, from the dep's postcode. The band pays the member and the member pays the dep. Say the number before the gig.

Try your own numbers. Put the fee, the players and the dep's postcode into the free calculator. No account needed.