How Much Do Cover Bands Make? (While Avoiding Copyright!)

Author: Brett Clur | Updated: | This post may contain affiliate links.

While playing music in a cover band is often not every musician’s end goal, it’s undoubtedly one of the best ways to keep a steady flow of income. Most cover bands are way more desirable than bands that have original music but aren’t well known.

You may be wondering what the earning potential is for cover bands and why playing in one is such a good avenue to go down. I’ll do my best to answer those questions.

Different Types of Gigs

The primary way that cover bands make money is by playing gigs. Not all gigs will pay the same rates, though. When it comes to cover bands, there are three main types of gigs that they play.

Bars and Clubs

I’ve played in a few cover bands over the years and the venues that I’ve played in the most have been bars, clubs, and restaurants. These venues are always looking for entertainment to enhance the experience of their customers, so, cover bands are in high demand.

The reason they want cover bands is that the band will play songs that the crowd already knows, leading the customers to have a better time and end up spending more money.

Although these gigs are the most frequently played by cover bands, they typically have the lowest pay. I’ve played in a few clubs that didn’t even pay us at all. Instead, we walked away with a free meal and a few drinks.

A higher-quality venue will pay a band anywhere from $100 to $1,000.

Corporate Events

Corporate events are one of the best money-makers for cover bands. Big businesses often have functions where they need entertainment. I’ve played in a few corporate events that were themed, so the cover band I was in was asked to play very specific songs.

Since big businesses are big businesses, they have big money to pay the cover bands that play for their events. It’s not uncommon to see a band making anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 for gigs like these. This leads each band member to walk away with a great paycheck.

Weddings

The final type of gig that I feel is worth mentioning would be weddings. I got married recently and let me tell you that every band we looked at had high fees. The wedding business is fairly lucrative for all the services involved, so cover bands have the potential to make big money there.

Cover bands are also in high demand as couples love it when live bands play their favorite songs for the dancing parts of the wedding.

The amount of money a cover band can make at a wedding will depend on what time of year it is. In the peak wedding seasons, a band could make up to $10,000.

Social Media

Cover bands make most of their money from live performing as copyright will prevent them from making any distribution money from their songs or performances. With that being said, there is one big way for cover bands to make money from posting things online.

Videos

If a cover band chooses to have an online presence, they can grow a substantial fanbase and end up selling things to them. The covers will be what makes them famous, but they’ll be able to release original music once they have the followers.

My favorite example of this is from a band called ‘Our Last Night’. They have a massive following on YouTube because they do rock covers of popular songs. I discovered them through that and then later found out that they had original music that I really enjoyed.

They’re making thousands of dollars through album sales and streams because they got famous from posting covers onto YouTube.

Here’s an example of one of their covers:

Wrap Up

When I was coming up as a drummer, I had so many people telling me that joining a cover band would destroy my creativity and that it should be everyone’s goal to perform original music at gigs.

I learned to disagree with that statement. Playing in a cover band is a great way of making a substantial amount of income as a musician. It’s a lot easier to get gigs when you’re covering popular songs. So, don’t think playing in a cover band is something negative. Go out and make some cash!

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About Brett Clur

Brett has been drumming for almost two decades. He also helps his students get better at drumming. He can be found on Instagram (@brettclurdrums), where you can regularly catch glimpses of his drumming.

1 thought on “How Much Do Cover Bands Make? (While Avoiding Copyright!)”

  1. Very informative. Thank you. I’ve been in 2 UK bands in the past. One covers, one original. The covers band made more money and it was more fun. I’m looking to join another covers band early 2022.

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