How a show pays: guarantees and promoter deals
Most shows pay one of three ways. A flat guarantee: fixed fee regardless of sales. A versus deal: the greater of the guarantee or an agreed percentage of net box office. A door deal: a straight percentage split, common at club level.
The percentage side always runs on net box office: gross ticket money minus taxes, booking fees and the agreed show costs. Which costs sit in that list is negotiated per show, and it moves real money. A generous cost list on a versus deal can keep the percentage side from ever beating the guarantee.
Settlement is the after-show meeting where the promoter and the tour manager reconcile actual sales and actual documented costs, and agree the final figure. The settlement sheet is the source document for the whole night; keep every one.
The cost stack between gross and net
Off the top of the artist side comes the team: booking agent commission, then management commission, with the exact base for each depending on the contracts. Then production and road costs: crew wages, travel, freight, backline, buses and accommodation.
Commission bases deserve attention. A manager commissioning gross touring income on a loss-making tour is earning while the client burns money; many management deals therefore commission net touring income, or cap commission on tour losses. Check what the client actually signed before you model anything.
- Merch income runs on its own economics: venues and their concessionaires commonly take a percentage of sales, and arena rates run materially higher than club rates.
- Support slots pay little by design; the value is the audience. Buy-ons (paying to join a tour) should be modelled as marketing spend.
- Tour support from a label is usually recoupable: it is an advance wearing hi-vis, and it lands on the record account balance.
VAT and foreign withholding
Domestically, performance fees from a VAT-registered artist to a UK promoter carry VAT in the normal way, and much of the cost stack carries reclaimable input VAT. The registration threshold and rates move; the discipline is to decide registration status before the tour prices its deals, not after.
Cross-border, the artiste article of double-tax treaties lets the show's country tax performance income at source: the promoter withholds a slice of the fee and pays it to the local tax authority. Relief then comes through treaty claims, reduced-rate applications before the tour, or foreign tax credits in the UK return, and the paperwork burden is real.
The planning failure mode is predictable: a client tours four countries, four promoters each withhold, and no one keeps the certificates. Reconstructing withholding evidence at filing time costs more than collecting it at settlement would have.
Reading a tour as an adviser
Model a tour bottom-up before it is booked: per-show deal terms, the full cost stack, commission bases, merch assumptions and expected withholding by country. Then reconcile settlement sheets against the model as the tour runs. Variance between deal memo and settlement is where the conversation with the agent and promoter starts.
And keep the record account in view. If the label funded tour support, the tour is quietly moving the recoupment balance while everyone watches ticket counts.
Figures referred to
- Typical booking agent commissionIllustrative
- Roughly 10% of live feesStandard agency terms reported in trade press · as of 2025
- Venue merch concession ratesIllustrative
- Roughly 10–25% of merch sales at clubs and theatres, higher at arenasRanges reported by touring managers and trade press · as of 2025
Figures marked Illustrative show the shape of the market, not a quoted rate. The lessons keep the maintained, sourced numbers.
Common questions
What is a versus deal in live music?
A show deal paying the greater of a fixed guarantee or an agreed percentage of net box office. Net box office means gross ticket income minus taxes, fees and the negotiated show costs, so the definition of that cost list decides how often the percentage side wins.
What is settlement on a tour?
The post-show reconciliation between the promoter and the tour manager: actual ticket sales and documented costs are agreed and the final payment is fixed. The settlement sheet is the authoritative record of the show and the basis for commission and accounting.
Why was tax withheld from my foreign show fees?
Double-tax treaties let the country where a performance happens tax the fee at source, so the local promoter withholds a percentage and remits it locally. Relief comes via advance reduced-rate applications, treaty claims, or foreign tax credits in the UK return, all of which need the withholding certificates.
Learn this properly
The interactive lessons on this topic, with sourced figures and live simulators: