Promoters talk in shorthand, from the first booking email to the cash count at the end of the night, and a band that does not speak it ends up agreeing to things it did not understand. These are the terms, in roughly the order you will hear them, and what each one commits you to.

Holds, challenges and confirming

A hold is a tentative claim on a date. It is not a show. Rooms stack holds in order: first hold has first right to the night, second hold is next in line, and some rooms run three or four deep. A second hold is still worth taking. Plenty of first holds fall through.

A challenge is how a lower hold forces the issue. The band or promoter behind you comes in with a real offer, and the hold ahead has a deadline to confirm or release the date. That deadline is not standard. Metal Injection's DIY guide describes 24 hours to lock a lineup. The GRAND in Calgary gives the hold ahead two business days and requires the challenger to pre-sign a contract. Ask each room how it handles challenges before you rely on a hold.

Confirmed means confirmed in writing: a contract, a signed offer or at minimum an email from the buyer with the date, the deal and the set length. Some venues also require a deposit before they treat a date as locked. Until you have that, the date is still a hold, no matter how friendly the booker sounded.

Track all of it on one shared calendar, holds in one color and confirmed shows in another, so nobody in the band double-books a city.

Offers and the three deal shapes

An offer is the promoter's written terms: date, venue, capacity, ticket price, set length, what you get paid and how. Read it like a contract, because it usually becomes one.

  • Guarantee. A flat fee no matter how many people show. At the club level, most rooms booking original music do not offer one to bands without a draw history.
  • Door deal. A percentage of ticket sales. The key question is gross or net. On a net deal, the promoter's approved expenses (sound, door staff, ticketing fees and so on) come off first, and your split applies to what is left. Ask for that expense list in writing.
  • Versus deal. The greater of a guarantee or a percentage of the net. At settlement you calculate both and take the larger. It protects you on a slow night and pays you if the room fills.

Percentages, expenses and what counts as a cost vary by city and by room. Compare offers within a market, not across the country.

Advancing the show

Advancing is confirming every detail with the promoter before you arrive. Do it a few weeks out and follow up if nobody answers. Get load-in time, venue address, set times for every band, set length, backline situation, merch cut (if the room takes one), parking, the day-of contact's phone number and how you will be paid.

Hospitality is what the venue provides on top of the deal: food, drinks, sometimes a room. A meal buyout is cash in place of food, usually a set amount per band or crew member. Get the headcount and the amount in the advance, because it is a lot easier to agree on before the show than to argue about after.

Settlement

Settlement is the end-of-night reckoning where you get paid. At a small club it may be the booker counting the door with you. At a ticketed room it is a box office report and a settlement sheet. Check the paid count against the ticket report, ask about comps, compare every deduction to the list you got in the advance, and get a signed copy before you load out. If an expense shows up that was never discussed, ask about it then, calmly, not by email two weeks later.

Pay-to-play and buy-ons

At the local level, pay-to-play usually looks like a ticket requirement: you pre-buy or must sell a set number of tickets, and anything you do not move comes out of your pocket. That is the promoter handing its risk to the band. A buy-on is the touring version, where an opener pays a headliner up front for a support slot and still covers its own travel. Herstand's 2016 Digital Music News piece separates that from bands splitting real costs like bunks or hotel rooms, which is a different conversation. Know which one you are being offered, get the number in writing and walk when the math only works for the person asking.

Decide which deal you will take in each city, and what the advance has to cover before you say yes, while the calendar is still all holds.