How Much Should a 3-Hour Gig Pay? Count the Real Hours First

What a "3-hour gig" actually is

The venue says "three hours." What they mean is three hours of music their customers hear. What you live through looks like this:

1. Drive there. Including traffic and finding parking near the load-in door.
2. Load-in. Carrying the PA, guitar, stands and cables from the car to the stage.
3. Setup and soundcheck. Running cables, tuning, checking levels before the room fills.
4. The three hours. The part that gets talked about.
5. Breaks. Sometimes inside the three hours, sometimes stacked on top of them. That one detail can add a lot of time to your night.
6. Teardown and load-out. Usually after close, usually when you're tired.
7. Settling up. Finding the person who pays you. Sometimes that takes longer than it should.
8. Drive home.

Every one of those is your time. None of it is optional. So the honest question isn't "what does a 3-hour gig pay?" It's "what does this gig pay for the hours it really takes?"

Count every hour honestly

The calculator only works if you're honest with it. Here's where players fool themselves.

• Setup is longer than you think. Time it at your next gig, from the car door to the first note. Include the wait for the table in front of the stage to clear.
• Showing up early counts. If you arrive an hour before downbeat so you're set before the rush (and you should), that hour goes in the box.
• Breaks need a rule. "Three hours with breaks" and "three hours of music plus breaks" are different gigs. Ask which one before you agree.
• Load-out happens at close. If the bar wants you to wait until the last table leaves, that's more time.
• The drive home is part of the gig. A 50-minute drive each way adds most of two hours to your night.

Made-up example Sam gets offered a "3-hour" Friday at a taproom. She plays three hours with half an hour of breaks stacked on top, sets up for an hour, tears down for half an hour, and drives 40 minutes each way. That's more than six hours door to door. The offer looked fine per stage hour. Per real hour, it paid less than half of that.

So how much should a 3-hour gig pay?

Enough that the real hourly number clears what an hour of your time is worth, after costs and after what you set aside for taxes. That's it. There's no single right number, because your drive, your gear and your market are yours.

Here's the order to work in:

1. Know your floor first. That's the total under which the gig costs you money. Work it out once with the gig rate calculator, which adds car costs and a tax set-aside to your hours.
2. Run every offer through real hours. Use the calculator above when a venue names a number. If the real hourly is under your number, the answer isn't yes.
3. Quote a flat fee for a set time frame. "Three hours of music, 7 to 10, for $[amount]." Not an hourly rate, which invites arguments about breaks.
4. Price the night, not the stage time. If a room is far away, or the breaks are stacked on top, the same three hours deserve a higher fee.

Don't count tips or the bar tab

Decide on the guaranteed fee. Tips are real money and a seeded tip jar helps, but they swing from night to night, and you can't quote a venue your tip jar. If an offer only works when tips are good, the offer doesn't work.

Same with drinks. A free tab isn't pay. Many players take it, and some bars treat it as a way to pay you less. Price the gig in dollars and drink water.

When the offer comes in low

Don't drop your price to meet theirs. Change what they get. If three hours doesn't pay for the real hours, offer fewer hours for less, or a version of the gig that takes less of your night.

Thanks for the offer. For three hours of music, [start] to [end], my rate is $[amount]. That covers setup before your rush and my own sound.

If that's more than the budget, I can do two hours, [start] to [end], for $[lower amount]. Want me to hold [date] for either one?

"Sure, $[their number] works."
(Then drive 50 minutes, play 3 hours plus
breaks, and make less per hour than your
day job.)

Run the offer through real hours.
"For three hours it's $[amount]. I can do
two hours for $[lower amount]."
A shorter night for less, never the same
night for less.

Solo vs duo: same hours, split money

A duo doesn't play fewer hours because there are two of you. Both players drive, both load in, both stay for teardown. Set "Players splitting it" to 2 and watch what each person takes home per real hour. If the number doesn't work for both of you, either the fee goes up or it's a solo room.

Three hours needs a plan, too

Once the money works, fill the time right. Three hours is a lot of songs, and the breaks shape the night. See how many songs you need for a 3-hour gig. Then make sure the fee you agreed on actually lands: confirm it in writing and know who pays you before you plug in. The routine is in How to Get Paid for Gigs.