Want To Book Your Fav Band? Here Are The Prices
$1 million for the boss at your Bar Mitzvah
Do you want to book your favorite band for your weeding? This article published by Priceonomics tells you how much you will have to pay to book it! Prices are arranged by categories ($1,000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $20,000, $20,000 to $30,000, $30,000 to $50,000, over $50,000, and over $100,000) and the numbers were provided by an anonymous source from Degy Entertainment, a major booking agency, and they are, of course, for one evening only!
Priceonomics reveals that prices should not be taken 100% seriously, some acts are suspiciously off, but still it gives you a good idea and puts a price tag on some big names. Let’s start by the top of the bucket: Booking Dave Matthews, Bon Jovi, James Taylor, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake will cost you about $1 million or more, Coldplay or Adele around $750K, Rihanna or No Doubt $500-750K, Britney Spears $500K, Keith Urban or Maroon 5 $400-600K, Foo Fighters $500K, , Kings of Leon $400-500K… Are you surprised by these numbers? I am! Dave Matthews and Bon Jovi worth the same than Bieber or Timberlake? Curiously Lady Gaga or Kanye West don’t make the $1 million-list with respectively (only) $750K and $400-600K,… what? Kanye doesn’t make more than Imagine Dragons or Pink? Yeezus is quite affordable after all.
The rest is all over the spectrum, I was interested by a few acts that I have seen, such as Arcade Fire $150K, The Flaming Lips $100-125K, Vampire Weekend $100-200K, QOTSA $75-125K, Artic Monkeys $75-100K, Muse $150K, Phoenix $100K, Cat Power $50-75K, Gogol Bordello $50K, MGMT $85-100K, Odd Future $50-75K, Cold War Kids $30-40K, Fitz and the Tantrums $30-50K, Silversun Pickups $25-40K, Ra Ra Riot $10-20K, Tame Impala $10K, Wavves $5-10K…. pick your own ones here.
But there are some real aberrations, Bob Dylan, probably the greatest songwriter of all time is worth no more only $150-300K? Morrissey is only $100K, and that’s why he should accept to reunite the Smiths, and legend BB King only worths 75-100K,… like the Gypsy King, Brandon Flowers or Gotye? There is something wrong here.
I have found other numbers ( a few year old though) for bands who do not figure here, and Radiohead would ask for about a million, U2 for 3 million, and the Rolling Stones for 5 million. I don’t know if all these numbers are totally off, but they seem in phase with the rest. It could interesting to do some statistics to see if females are less paid than males, if genres and colors matter… but we probably already know all the answers. I couldn’t find any prices for Jay Z and Beyonce, but they would probably break the scale. I wonder whether festivals have to drop that much money for their headliners or whether they make their own offer? In any case it was a much better deal for Coachella to book Muse instead of U2 (this year), or Phoenix instead of the Rolling Stones (last year). Anyway we all know that, for what they actually do, DJs have the best deal these days.
