Last night I was talking to the bar manager during break and asked him what the break even point was for him to hire and pay a band.  While I'm sure a lot depends on the bars rent and employee pay scale, he told me that in order to pay us our $ 500.00 per night they had to have bar sales of at least $ 1,600.00.  

At $ 3.00 a beer (more for mixed drinks, less for soda/coffee) they have to move 500+ bottles.  Thats actually a lot of brew.  The options are charge a cover, pay less or raise drink prices while the bands on. This dilema is a hot topic for many bars as these tactics can discourage traffic too.

Bands that sell drinks and bring in the drinking/ dancing crowd get the higher scales.  There are bands that bring in loads of people, but those people drink sodas or water.  Even though these bands pack the joint, the owner still can't make the money needed to cover the nut.  so while some bands may pack the place,  and think they are deserving of a higher pay, I guess they need to consider if the bar is actually making enough to afford a higher cost.

The bands that seem to try to help the owners by doing some advertising, doing contests and givaways, and generally helping to bring in people for the owner tend to get some better bookings.

In today's economy and with stricter laws for DUI it's harder for clubs to survive with a band on it's weekly expenses.  D.J's and karaoke shows can come at a lower cost then a live band and can draw a crowd too, so I have to feel somewhat sympathetic to a bar owner that shells out $500-600 after what I percieve to be a dead night.
 Private events that are paid for from Corporate $'s, wedding $'s or paid attendence are another story....I'll happily take as much of their money as they are willing to part with.  

   

I'll weigh in on the Ohio band's subject. The pay here in Dayton can be described as "not bad".

I'm aware that larger "music" towns, i.e, LA, Seattle, Nashville (I can't speak about NY or SF) you can actually run into a Pay to Play situation just for the privelige of playing in a club.

However in FLA and east coast resort towns (Atlantic City, Ocean City, VA Beach, Myrtle Beach) you'll probably be the most well paid in the country. And where strips are involved you'll have hordes of different musical styles within walking distance of each other.

In Dayton if you're in a rock or blues or anything danceable band you'll probably make $4-500 in a club, if you prove you can attract a drinking crowd consistantly it'll go higher. So we are roughly in the middle of the pay scale geographically.

In my corporate band (we like to think we are a little more polished than the aveage bar band) if we play a club we have a $600 minimum, but the class of bar and patrons are a little higher end than a sports bar or biker bar or blues club.
When we play festivals, weddings and such, we charge $650.00 1st hour,$1000.00 2 hours, $1200.00 3 hours. Also with corporate gigs we charge $300.00 if we have to provide lights and sound. We don't go through an agency yet so it could go up from there.

If you are just starting out as an original act, you limit the places you can play, although that has gotten a little better in the last 10 years. It will take a long time to to start getting guaruntees. Unless you can really pack the place consitantly. You usually play for the door or a % of the door. If you open for touring act they get the higher split of the door even though your band did the advertising and it was your friends who came for the show. Once you start getting a following the guaruntees go up to about $500.

Sorry, my bad.
I was thinking of this quote from Bart:


Here in Nashville, it's customary for a band down on lower Broadway to play 4-5 hours straight with no breaks! I've gone downtown to check out players during the week (not a weekend mind you), and the musicians stay on stage for a solid 4 or 5 hours. It's nuts. Guess that keeps people from stealing their gig or sitting in. Just imagine doing all of that ... for $30.00.    No thanks.

I didn't know the specifics, I just knew that it (and any music town) was extremely competative and I'm sure people end up playing for free.