Venue Agreement

This is an agreements to perform at a certain place, date and time in exchange for an agreed fee. 

The agreement may include a guarantee (i.e. a fixed payment) plus a percentage of ticket sales, a straight fee or an agreed split of the door takings.

Negotiated extra may also include a 'Rider'.  This ranges from specified free food and drink, free admission, guest lists, hotels and bonuses for a large audience to flowers and sweets etc.  The Rider is usually an integral part of the venue contract, often negotiated via the agent.

Agency Agreement

This is an agreement made between the artist and a company who will find them live work including tours.  The agent’s fee will range from to 10-20%.  The contract might run for a year with an option to extend. 

It often happens that an agent may only represent you only in the UK, whilst you may employ other agents for different territories of the world.  If this is the case the territories should be clear in the contract terms.

Merchandising Agreement

Artists create and sell their own merchandise at gigs as a valuable source of additional income.  Sometimes, the band revenues from merchandise are greater than their income from record sales. 

A group may wish to either set up a merchandising company to make and distribute goods or to contract with an official merchandising company.  A contract would normally be negotiated for a fixed period and would involve the merchandiser advancing a sum to the group (to be reclaimed at future sales) and sharing the profits from sales having first paid the manufacturing costs and distribution. For example, T shirts!