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How To Start A Band: Questions To Cover Before You Play Your First Gig

By Indiana Gregg

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Published: 17Aug2009
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When you're putting a band together and you start to gig, write songs, and begin sending demos out to record labels or even if you are simply putting your tracks on line for the world to hear, there are a few things you might want to consider.

Many bands start out as a group of friends from school or the neighborhood who like getting together for a jam. Eventually, the band begins to develop a sound and the band decides to start playing live or perhaps visit a studio to record some tracks. This is all good fun, but, what happens when the band begins to get 'serious'? What happens when you start recording or gigging and someone from outside the band begins to take interest?

When I was 19, I began to play in a progressive rock band. We played at various clubs and parties and had a lot of fun for about a year or so. Then, one day, a guy walked into one of our rehearsals who had been invited by our bassist's father. After the rehearsal, as we were packing up our gear to go home, this guy started talking to us. "What do you say I schedule some recording time for you guys to make a few demos?" We were all nodding our heads. "Sure, that's great". Next thing we knew, we were in the recording studio recording our songs. We made copies of our demos and began to send them out to a few managers and indie labels.

Eventually, we were offered a deal. But, wait a minute, Joe didn't tell us that WE didn't OWN the copyright to our recordings. So, who owned them? Joe did! And that wasn't the only problem, when the record company proposed that we re-record the songs, it led to a fight within the band about who the true songwriters were. Since we had all spent a year working on the songs, it seemed logical that we would all be considered 'writers'. However, a couple of the band members began to claim that they had written the songs beforehand. This lead to some disputes, rivalry, and a lot of grief for all of us. There were even arguments about what the band name should be and who owned the keyboard that we had all pitched in to buy one of the band members. So, within a year we had gone from being best band mates to arch rivals all due to some interest from a record label and our new friend 'Joe'.

Some might just consider this typical immature band behaviour. However, it could have been easily avoided had we asked ourselves the following questions and come to agreements beforehand:

15 Things To Sort Out Before You Ever Play That First Gig:

1. What's your Band name? Who owns the brand or trademark to that name?
2. Who owns the equipment in your band?
3. How will the band handle money coming in?
4. Does your band have a band bank account and who will be in charge of the financials?
5. Who will you designate to make agreements on the band's behalf?
6. How will the band split any royalties from publishing/ song writing splits
7. Who owns the copyright to your recordings?
8. What about your merchandise? Who has the rights?
9. Who will keep track of inventory (both equipment and physical merchandise) for the band?
10. What do you do when someone leaves the band?
11. What happens when a new member joins?
12. How do you plan to handle any disputes?
13. How are the various duties going to be split up between the members?
14. Who will run the website and manage your online presence?
15. What portion of your incoming monies will go towards further promoting the band after expenses are met?

Some bands get by without even thinking about these important questions. However, if you are serious about making music and making some money from your music, you may consider setting up your band as a business. After all, if you begin to get paid to play or start selling your music and merchandise either online or at a gig, you might want to think about setting the band up as either a partnership or a corporation.

You may think now 'well, we just want to have fun and hope we get a record deal". However, you can save yourselves a good deal of heartache by setting a bit of time aside to answer these important questions. It's important that your band works as a unit both on stage and off. If everyone can agree to 'who does what?" and "how things will be handled?" You'll set yourselves up for less trouble in the case that your band begins to become profitable.

Many bands work with one or two 'lead' members who take care of everything from booking the band at gigs to building the website, working the social networks, and even dealing with the band's promotions. Sometimes, there are only a couple of 'songwriters' in the band. Sometimes there are situations where the band may pitch in to buy one of the members a new instrument or a band PA system or a van to travel with. How do you decide who owns the gear? Did one of the members donate it to the band? Was it a loan? What happens to their share when they leave? How do you split the profits and publishing?

If you run your band like a small business and designate roles for each member to fill from the beginning, , you will be less likely to have disputes about who owns the PA, who owns the copyright to a song, or who seems to be 'carrying all the weight' for the band. If you find that there is a gap where work needs to be done and there is not a member of the band with those skill sets, you may need to outsource that work to either a trustworthy fan who does, or in some cases, you may need to hire the services of a professional.

In any case, make sure you find the time to answer these important questions. Make agreements amongst yourselves and have all your band members sign off to a list of duties and protocol about how things will be handled. Give everyone a copy, and start taking care of business. This will free up more time have loads of fun making music now while greatly reducing the potential for hassles and frustrations later.

Indiana Gregg is co-founder and director of Kerchoonz.com http://www.kerchoonz.com a music streaming and social networking site where musician's are paid when their music is played. Indiana lives in Glasgow, Scotland with her family and also works as a touring musician and songwriter.

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