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For musicians & singers

Before you sign that performance contract, check these three things.

A gig agreement names a date, a venue and a fee. What decides whether you actually get paid is further down: what happens if the event is cancelled, when the fee is due, and whether the show can be recorded and used without paying you again.

Performance Agreement.pdfPage 1 of 2
Example
High risk— review carefully before you sign

This booking agreement lets the organizer cancel at any time for nothing and record the show for any use without paying more.

Lower riskHigher risk
Against youHigh · Termination

The organizer can cancel at any time for nothing

A cancellation the day before costs the organizer nothing, while the date you held cannot be sold again.

Ask for

Ask for a deposit on signing that is kept if the organizer cancels, and a notice period.

  • Recording rights for any purposeHigh · IP
  • Paid “after the event”, with no dateMedium · Payment
See the full sample analysis →

The numbers

In May 2025, there were 36,180 wage and salary jobs for musicians and singers in the U.S., with a median hourly wage of $47.80.

Median hourly wage, U.S., May 2025: musicians and singers ($47.80) and 28 other occupations these pages cover. Each dot is one occupation's median.

These figures count jobs, not people, and do not include self-employed work — so they say little about how many musicians and singers work freelance or run their own business.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, national estimates for SOC 27-2042. Public domain.

Cancellation, payment and recording rights

  1. Cancellation — Check whether you are paid anything if the organizer cancels, and how much notice they have to give. A deposit that is not refundable to them protects you.
  2. Payment timing — Payment “after the event” with no date can leave you chasing it. Look for a deposit and the balance on the night or within a set number of days.
  3. Recording rights — A clause letting the organizer record and use the performance, with no extra fee, gives away more than one night's work.

Check the agreement before the soundcheck

A gig contract is short, and the gaps in it are easy to miss. Free: one analysis every 30 days, no card. Each analysis gives a risk read of the key clauses, quotes the contract's own words for its findings, and turns each flagged clause into a specific ask.

Analyze my contract — free
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  • Never used to train models
  • Informational — not legal advice

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