Concert Settlement Calculator
A settlement turns a night’s ticket sales into the number owed the artist. Enter the tickets, the guarantee, and the expenses, and this blank worksheet computes the adjusted gross, the split point, the 85/15 back end, and the net due, live, entirely on your device.
The deal
A straight back-end deal: once the guarantee and every expense are paid back, what’s left splits 85% to the artist and 15% to the promoter. Editing either percentage auto-fills the other to 100%.
Ticket scaling
| Price tier | Price | Advance | Day of show | Gross |
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Deductions
Facility fees and taxes come off gross box office to reach the adjusted gross the deal works from. Careful: the facility fee is sometimes built into the ticket price and sometimes charged on top of it. Check which way your deal reads.
Show expenses
| Category | Amount |
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How the money actually flows
Ticket sales are gross box office receipts. Facility fees and sales tax usually come off the top to reach the adjusted gross, but not always: some deals build the facility fee into the ticket price instead of charging it on top. Make sure you know which way yours reads before you count on the number. From the adjusted gross, the promoter recoups the artist’s guarantee and every show expense; that total is the split point. Whatever the adjusted gross earns above it is the overage, and the overage splits by the back-end percentages: typically 85% to the artist as their back end, 15% to the promoter as their profits.
You’ll also see versus deals: the artist is paid the guarantee or a percentage of the box office, whichever is greater. Say the offer reads $5,000 versus 85%. If 85% of the adjusted gross comes to more than $5,000, the artist takes the percentage. If it comes to less, the artist takes the $5,000. The guarantee is the floor; the percentage is the upside.
The single most expensive lesson in this business is that settlement doesn’t start at the table at midnight. It starts at the offer, weeks before. If the budget behind the offer was wrong, no amount of arithmetic at the table fixes it. That is what settlement & accounting consulting is for.
Nothing is uploaded. Every number stays in your browser. This tool is an educational worksheet, not legal or accounting advice; confirm the exact terms against your signed contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a concert settlement?
A concert settlement is the end-of-night accounting between the promoter and the artist: ticket sales become gross box office receipts, facility fees and taxes come out, show expenses are itemized, and the remainder is split according to the deal. It determines the final amount owed to the artist.
How is the split point calculated?
The split point is the amount the box office must reach before the artist shares in the overage. It equals the artist guarantee plus total show expenses. Anything the adjusted gross earns above the split point is the overage, split by the back-end percentages, typically 85% to the artist and 15% to the promoter.
What is a versus deal in a concert contract?
A versus deal pays the artist the guarantee or a percentage of the box office, whichever is greater. For example, $5,000 versus 85% means the artist takes 85% if it beats $5,000, and takes the $5,000 if it doesn’t. The guarantee is a floor and the percentage is the upside.