Hi Donna, I booked quite a few tours back in the day. These were mostly with my own bands, but sometimes just as a caller. I never took a booker fee, even though it was often an incredible amount of extra work.. I guess the justification was that we all contributed as much as we could and in the end it would all even out.. We always took the money we received at the end of the night and divided it 3 or 5 ways (or whatever it was). Sometimes, (depending on the "deal" with the particular organization), when I was calling and playing I would get two cuts, one for caller one for musician. Some times (if we did sound) we got extra $$ for that, BUT we always threw all the dough into one pile and divided it evenly.


This is NOT the case for booking a private party, or especially a wedding.. In these cases the headaches for the booker (often, not always) demand an extra fee.. Of course, there is often a LOT more money to divide.. Needless to say, all the "money stuff" was discussed ahead of time.. In the case of a wedding the booker took maybe 50-100 bucks.. same for sound.


bill




From: Callers <callers-bounces@lists.sharedweight.net> on behalf of Donna Hunt via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 8:45 PM
To: callers@sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] "booker" fee for tour planning
 
Hi
Just wondering aloud since this is not something I've ever seen discussed here.  Do you (or a musician you're traveling with) take a "booker fee" for planning a tour, or even a single community dance when there is a lot of planning with the event host and time spent booking musicians?  How much of a fee do you usually ask for from the event host or cut for yourself from the total fee to the group?

Donna Hunt