Someone came up with the name. Someone bought the PA. Someone spent Sunday building the website while everyone else recovered from Saturday night. Then came the photographs, rehearsals, arrangements, costumes, showreel, social accounts and conversations that turned into bookings.
Eventually, the band became a business.
Maybe its time to set up your Band Agreement before someone leaves with the trailer and the Facebook password becomes a bargaining chip?
As bands formalise their trading arrangements, an internal agreement needs to address two connected questions:
How are we operating this business together?
How are we protecting what we’re building?
The accountant needs clear answers about the money. The people contributing their time, skills, equipment and ideas deserve clear answers about their investment.
The trading structure needs to reflect the actual business.
For bands choosing a partnership, that means identifying who the partners are, how the business operates and how its income and losses are shared. An ordinary partnership has its own ABN and tax file number and lodges a partnership tax return. The partnership generally doesn’t pay income tax itself; each partner reports their share of partnership income in their own return.
That gives the band a framework for trading. There are still decisions to make.
Who can accept a booking? Who approves expenditure? What happens when a show loses money? How much stays in the account to fund the next campaign?
A general partnership also carries personal exposure: partners have unlimited liability for its debts and obligations. Choosing that structure deserves proper advice and a clear understanding of the commitments involved.
“Let’s get a partnership ABN” should be the beginning of a business conversation.
So the goal here is for everyone on stage to understand their place in the business.
A band might have founding owners, a Music Brand Manager, regular performers and occasional substitutes. Those people can have different roles, responsibilities and liabilities.
Someone might receive an agreed performance fee. Someone might have an ownership interest. Someone might lend the business money or equipment. Another person might be paid separately for managing bookings and marketing. So take the time to outline those arrangements.
Playing the same show doesn’t explain who owns the business. Receiving the client payment doesn’t explain who is entitled to keep it. An internal agreement should make the relationships understandable to everyone involved, including the person joining next month.
The plan is obviously for the brand to keep growing between gigs. The audience sees the show. Behind it sits the work that makes the show bookable. The consistent presentation. The current promotional assets. The reliable communication. The rehearsed substitute who can step in without turning the night into an experiment.
Then there is the reputation built one successful booking at a time. And there is a value for that. An agreement captures that value.
If one member spends six hours a week administering the business, agree how that contribution is treated. If someone funds a recording, document whether the money is a loan, an expense or an agreed investment. If the group develops a show together, discuss ownership and permissions while everyone can still remember who contributed what.
And never forget about money; it changes everything. Start with an audit of payment for performing, managing, repayment of money and the ownership of assets as each will need their own explanation.
And start to ask these questions: Which people or entity own the name? Who owns the logo, recordings, arrangements, costumes and promotional material? Who has permission to use them? What happens to that permission when a member leaves?
Put the answers in an asset register and have the relevant terms checked. Include digital assets: domains, websites, social accounts, advertising accounts, mailing lists and booking records. Record authorised access and the handover process. To establish business continuity, consider setting up a band google drive where access is mapped out and easy to find when needed.
Songwriting and recording interests also need separate attention. A performance payment formula won’t answer every question about creative ownership or future income.
Start with the client payment and follow it through. Record the approved deductions, production costs, travel, accommodation, performer payments and any amount retained by the business. Explain who invoices, who receives the funds and when statements and payments are issued. Agree how additional expenditure is approved. Include cancelled shows, unpaid invoices and losses. A system that only explains the profitable nights leaves some expensive gaps.
The aim is simple: each person should be able to understand their payment without conducting an investigation.
Pay Day Super started this conversation, making contracting and payment chain particularly important.
Who is engaged by the client? Who engages the performers? Who is liable to pay them? Who maintains the records and administers any required contributions? Have those arrangements assessed. Australian SG rules include specific provisions covering paid performers, so the analysis needs to consider the actual engagement.
An agreement records responsibilities. Calling someone a partner or contractor cannot, by itself, settle their legal position or create an SG exemption.
And factor in an exit plan. People change direction. Health changes. Family commitments change. Sometimes the musical relationship simply runs its course. Agree what happens to confirmed gigs, outstanding payments, member loans, equipment, account access and use of the name. Discuss any buyout method before someone needs a valuation.
A clear departure process gives the leaving member a path out and the remaining business a path forward. It also helps protect the other people relying on the show: clients, crew, agents and audiences.
Sit down together and work through the business you are actually operating. Record the decisions. Identify the disagreements. Take both to your accountant and lawyer.
The Pushworth Internal Music Brand Agreement Checklist and Fact Sheet (Click on each to download a copy.) provide a practical starting point across the 12 areas covered in this Musoverse Substack Inside the Band.
You’ve already invested the rehearsals, the money, the weekends and the work.
Give that investment an agreement everyone understands.
General information for Australian music businesses. Obtain legal and accounting advice about your own structure, agreements and obligations.
Nichola Burton is co-founder and CEO of The Pushworth Group and the voice behind Musoverse. A performer turned music business operator, she writes about what it takes to build a show, run the business and protect the work behind it. Copyright 2026
