What percentage of the door does a promoter get?

There is no standard; it is always negotiated. Individual promoters are often paid per head or a small share, while a crew hosting its own night can get most of the door if the venue keeps the bar.

What is a versus deal?

A versus deal guarantees an artist a fixed fee or a percentage of the door, whichever is higher. The artist is covered if the night is quiet and shares in the upside if it sells out.

Glossary

Door deal

A door deal pays a promoter, DJ or crew a share of what an event takes at the door, instead of or on top of a fixed fee.

What is a door deal?

In a door deal, whoever helps fill the room is paid a percentage of the door takings. That can be a promoter, a DJ, a collective with its own crowd, or an outside crew renting a club for the night. The more people pay at the box office, the more they earn.

Door deals are common where money is tight and the risk has to be shared: small clubs, new parties, one-off events. A venue that is unsure whether a new crew can fill a Friday offers them the door instead of a fixed DJ fee and keeps the bar for itself. The crew carries the risk and gets the upside.

Common types of door deal

The details are always negotiated and vary a lot between cities and venues. The main forms are:

Straight split: the crew gets an agreed share of all door money. When the venue lives off the bar, that share can be most of the door.
After costs: security, box office staff or the sound engineer are paid first, and what is left is split.
Versus deal: an act gets a guaranteed fee or a share of the door, whichever is higher.
Per head: a promoter gets a fixed amount for each paying guest they bring, counted by a code, a list or a personal ticket link.

Example: settling a door deal

Say a collective in Leipzig agrees on 70 percent of the door after €400 in costs. On the night 260 people pay €15 each, so the door takes €3,900. After costs €3,500 remain, and the collective gets €2,450. Whether pre-sale money counts as "the door" has to be agreed in advance. If it does not, a strong pre-sale suddenly works against the crew.

Tips before you agree a door deal

Write it down, even in a message: the percentage, what counts as the door (pre-sale, box office, both) and which costs come off first.
Agree who counts. Settle from ticket scans and the box office count, not from a guess at 5 am.
Decide how the guest list is treated. Every free name is a ticket nobody gets paid for.
For per-head promoter deals, give each promoter a unique code or ticket link, so nobody argues about who brought whom.

Door deals and Parmo

Parmo does not take a share of the door and does not move money between organizers and promoters. On Parmo, organizers reward promoters for verified Instagram stories with a guest-list place, a drink balance or VIP treatment, set when the event is created. Parmo is not a way to run a door deal, but it can sit next to one: the reward pays for the story, the door deal pays for the heads. See Rewards, explained.

Common questions

What percentage of the door does a promoter get?: There is no standard; it is always negotiated. Individual promoters are often paid per head or a small share, while a crew hosting its own night can get most of the door if the venue keeps the bar.
What is a versus deal?: A versus deal guarantees an artist a fixed fee or a percentage of the door, whichever is higher. The artist is covered if the night is quiet and shares in the upside if it sells out.