Band gig pay split calculator
Put in the fee, the cut and everybody’s postcode. It takes each person’s travel off the top, splits what is left equally, and gives every player their own travel back on top. Deps included. UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — each in its own currency, its own postcodes and miles or kilometres. No signup, nothing stored.
Most bands do this arithmetic in the wrong order. They split the fee first and settle travel afterwards, which quietly means the player who drove 280 miles has subsidised the gig for the one who lives round the corner. The fair order is the other way round: fee minus the cut is the band pot; everybody’s travel comes out of the pot; what is left splits equally; and each player gets their own travel back on top of their share.
That is all this page does, in integer pence so the shares always add up to the pot exactly. Leave the miles blank and it looks up the round trip from each postcode; type them in yourself if you would rather. When a dep is covering, tick the box and give their postcode — they are the one who drove, but the share is still the member’s.
A worked example
A wedding pays a five-piece £1,800, and the band’s manager takes 15% — £270 — so the band pot is £1,530. The gig is in Guildford (GU1 1AA). Ana drives in from Reading (RG1 1AA), 20 miles there and back. Ben comes from Southampton (SO1 1AA) and Chloe from Bristol (BS1 1AA), 60 miles round trip each. Dev drives 90 miles from Oxford (OX1 1AA). Eli, the fifth player, cannot make it, and Dan deps for him — from Bournemouth (BH1 1AA), 280 miles there and back.
At 25p a mile that is £5, £15, £15, £22.50 and £70: £127.50 of travel, which comes out of the pot before anything is shared. That leaves £1,402.50 to split five ways — £280.50 each.
So Ana takes home £285.50 and Dev £303. Eli’s row reads £350.50: the £280.50 share plus the £70 of travel for the journey Dan made. Eli is not paid more for playing — he did not play. He is paid his share, out of which he settles with Dan, and the band’s books never gain a person who is not in the band.
Done the common way instead — split £1,530 five ways at £306 each and let everybody swallow their own fuel — Ana clears £301 and Eli’s row clears £236 once Dan’s fuel is paid for. That is £20.50 better than fair for the player who lives nearest and £44.50 worse for the one whose journey was longest. Nobody cheated anyone. The maths was just done in the wrong order.
There is a longer version of all of this — lifts and shared cars, band expenses, and the handful of mistakes that cause nearly every argument.
Questions people ask
Why does travel come out before the split?
Because otherwise the player who drove 140 miles each way has quietly paid for the gig on everyone else’s behalf. Taking each person’s travel out of the pot first, and giving it back to them on top of an equal share, means everybody is paid the same for playing and nobody is out of pocket for driving. Split first and reimburse afterwards and the arithmetic is different, and it is different in the driver’s disfavour.
How does a dep get paid?
The band pays the member, exactly as if they had played: the equal share, plus the dep’s travel, because it is the dep who drove. The member then settles with the dep whatever the two of them agreed. That keeps the band’s books the same shape every month and leaves one clear amount between the member and the dep. It is why this calculator asks for the dep’s postcode but keeps the share on the member’s row.
What is the manager’s cut?
Whatever the band has agreed with whoever books or manages it — a percentage of the fee, taken before the players share anything. Put 0 in if the band runs itself. If an agency invoices the client separately, work from what the band actually receives rather than the headline price the client paid.
Does it work outside the UK?
Yes — UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Pick the country at the top of the form and it takes that country’s money and places: pounds and postcodes, euros and Eircodes, dollars and ZIP codes, dollars and postal codes, and so on. Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand work in kilometres and a rate per kilometre; the UK and the US work in miles. The round trips are looked up as driving distance in the country you picked. The arithmetic is identical everywhere: travel off the top, the equal split, each player’s own travel back.
Is this the same arithmetic the app uses?
Yes, to the penny. The calculator runs the same pure module as Event Band Manager’s own statements, in integer pence with the same remainder rule, and a test compares the two on the same gig — five players, five postcodes and a dep — every time the code is built. The difference is that in the app the postcodes, the fuel rate and the miles are already there, and the result becomes a statement each player can read.