Money and tax

Agency commission

Also called Booking commission, agent’s commission, agency fee

The share of a show fee a booking agency keeps for its work, usually 10 to 20% in European club music. It comes out of what the artist receives; the promoter pays nothing on top.

Commission pays for the agency’s work on a show: the request, the price, the offer, the contract, and often the advancing and collecting the money. In European club music the usual range is 10 to 20%, and 15% is common for DJs. It is taken from the artist’s side of the deal. The promoter pays the agreed fee and nothing on top.

Example

[Artist A] plays a club for €2,300 landed, and the flights cost €260. At 15%:

	Commission after travel	Commission on the whole fee
Fee	€2,300	€2,300
Flights	−€260	−€260
Commission base	€2,040	€2,300
Commission (15%)	−€306	−€345
Left for the artist	€1,734	€1,695

What to watch for

Agree the base. On a landed deal, commission after travel means nobody earns a percentage on a flight. On door and bonus deals the base is the artist’s final share from the settlement.
When a promoter abroad withholds tax, such as the Austrian Abzugsteuer, commission can be taken before or after it. Either works, as long as the agreement says which.
A hotel buyout pays for a room, not for the show. The agreement should say whether money that replaces a cost carries commission.
The artist should get a statement per show with fee, costs, commission and what was paid out, line by line. Where the agency charges VAT, it comes on top of the commission.

Goes deeper

For artists

What a booking agency looks for in an artist

9 min readLast checked 1 Oct 2026

Landed deal
A fee that includes the artist’s travel: the artist side books and pays flights or trains out of it. On top, the promoter pays only what the deal lists as theirs, such as the hotel.
Settlement
The accounting after the show: tickets, income, deductions and costs, the artist’s final fee, what was already paid and the balance still due. Signed off by both sides.
Offer
A written proposal for one show with every deal term in it: date, venue, fee and deal type, who covers what, payment and announcement. Once accepted, it is the basis for the contract.
Invoice
The document that asks for payment and carries the tax details. For a show: who invoices whom, fee and costs on separate lines, VAT or the reverse-charge note, and when it is due.

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