Every musician has a number they don't say out loud. The fee they'd quietly accept if the gig was close to home and the bar staff seemed nice.
The trouble is that number drifts. A favour here, a "we'll get you back for a better one" there, and before long your minimum is whatever the last person offered.
That's why minimum fees exist. Not to make anyone rich. Just to stop the floor sinking. One Musicians Australia survey found almost half of working musicians earned less than $6,000 in a year, so it's not a theoretical problem.
The $250 minimum in Australia
Musicians Australia, the musicians' union that's part of MEAA, did the research in 2021 and landed on $250 as a fair minimum. Members endorsed it, and it's been campaigned for ever since.
The key detail is how it's measured: $250 per musician, per gig. Not per band. A five-piece playing a funded festival slot has a floor of $1,250.
It also has real teeth in one area. Every state and territory government except the NT now recognises the minimum for publicly funded gigs, and the Commonwealth has adopted it for live performance it funds. So if a venue, festival or event has received government money, the $250 minimum should apply.
Not sure whether a gig was funded? State arts agencies like Create NSW, Creative Victoria and CreateSA publish lists of funding recipients. It's worth a quick look before you agree to a fee.
For a regular commercial gig at a pub or a private function, $250 isn't law. It's a benchmark the union wants everyone to adopt. Musicians Australia members are also building a Gig Map tracking who pays and who doesn't, which is the kind of thing venues tend to notice.
If you're employed, the rules are different
Most pub and function work is contract work, so the minimum is whatever you negotiate.
But if you're actually employed, say in a theatre pit or by a company that puts you on the payroll, the Live Performance Award sets legal minimum rates. The Fair Work Ombudsman publishes the current figures, and they're worth checking if you're not sure which side of the line you're on.
Outside Australia
If you gig elsewhere, your union is the place to start. The UK Musicians' Union publishes recommended rates. In the US and Canada, local branches of the American Federation of Musicians publish their own scales.
One idea from those scales is worth stealing wherever you play: the minimum call. Some North American policies based on union rates pay a three-hour minimum, even for a 20-minute set. That's not greed. It's an acknowledgement that a 20-minute set still costs you the whole evening.
What $250 doesn't cover
Here's a fairly ordinary gig, and what it really looks like:
- –An hour and a half driving each way
- –An hour to load in, set up and soundcheck
- –Three hours on stage
- –Half an hour to pack down
That's about seven and a half hours of your day. At $250, you're on roughly $33 an hour before fuel, strings, wear on your gear, tax, and any super nobody's paying you. Not exactly the rock and roll lifestyle.
So treat $250 as a floor, not a target. Musicians Australia makes the same point: the minimum is the baseline, and you can charge your own artist fee on top of it.
Working out your own minimum
Your minimum should come from your numbers, not the client's budget. A simple way to get there:
1. Count the hours door to door, not just stage time.
2. Pick an hourly figure you'd be happy with for skilled work.
3. Multiply, then add travel costs and anything you supply, like a PA or lighting.
Do this once for each type of gig you play. A local residency, a wedding two hours away and a corporate gig with a 4pm soundcheck are three different jobs, and they deserve three different minimums.
Then decide your walk-away number before the phone rings. It's much easier to hold a line you drew calmly on a Tuesday than one you're inventing mid-conversation.
Saying it out loud
Quoting your minimum is less awkward when it sounds like a policy rather than a hope.
Something like: "My minimum for a three-hour function is $X. If you're booking a few dates, I'm happy to look at a package." Short, friendly, no apology.
And if the offer is exposure, remember that exposure has never once filled a petrol tank.
Know what each gig really pays
The fee on the booking isn't what the gig pays you. The fee minus fuel, parking, strings and your time is.
That's worth tracking properly. In SessionsNV, the expense tracker and profit and loss reports show you what each gig left in your pocket, and the Studio plan adds a mileage tracker for the kilometres in between. A few months of that and you'll know exactly which gigs are worth saying yes to.
A minimum fee isn't about ego. It's the price of turning up tuned, on time, with your evening already spent. Know your number, and say it like you mean it.
SessionsNV is a gig management and invoicing app for working musicians on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Learn more at sessionsnv.com.au