Setting Up Musician Pay Rates and Default Compensation

BookLive tracks musician compensation on a per-seat, per-performance basis. Every time you add a musician slot to a performance, you can set the exact dollar amount for that seat along with how the musician will be paid. This guide walks you through setting pay when creating seats, editing pay after the fact, and using ensemble templates to apply consistent rates quickly across an entire performance.

How Musician Pay Works in BookLive #

Each musician seat on a performance has its own Payment amount and Payment Method. Pay is set per gig — there is no single global default rate stored against a musician’s profile. Instead, you enter the rate at the time you create the seat, or you can update it at any point before paying out. Payment amounts are private: other musicians on the same performance cannot see what their colleagues are being paid.

Setting Pay When Adding an Individual Seat #

1. Open the performance and navigate to the Musicians tab.
2. Click Add Musician(s) and select Add Individual or Add Instrument.
3. Choose the instrument/specialty for the seat.
4. In the Payment field, enter the dollar amount you plan to pay this musician. Leave it at 0 if pay hasn’t been determined yet — you can always update it later.
5. In the Payment method dropdown, choose how the musician will be paid:
   • BookLive Pay — direct transfer via BookLive’s payout system
   • Check
   • Cash
   • Venmo
   • Other
6. Complete the remaining seat details (musician assignment, deadline, etc.) and click Create Slot.

Applying Pay Rates via Ensemble Templates #

If you frequently book the same configuration of musicians (for example, a String Quartet or Jazz Trio), ensemble templates let you create all the seats at once and set a single pay rate that applies to every seat in the batch.

1. On the Musicians tab, click Add Musician(s) and select Add Ensemble.
2. In the Select Template dropdown, choose a saved ensemble configuration. If you don’t have one yet, click Create New Template at the bottom of the list.
3. Enter the amount in the Payment per Musician field. This amount will be applied equally to every seat created from the template.
4. Set a Response Deadline if needed.
5. Click to confirm. BookLive creates one seat per instrument in the template, each with the payment amount you specified.

After the seats are created you can open any individual seat and adjust its payment independently if different musicians are being paid different rates.

Editing Pay on an Existing Seat #

You can update a musician’s pay at any time before the payout is processed.

1. On the Musicians tab, click the seat you want to edit.
2. In the seat detail panel that opens, locate the Payment field under the Details tab.
3. Update the dollar amount and click Save.

BookLive logs every payment change in the seat’s activity history, so you’ll have a record of what the rate was set to and when it changed.

Paying Musicians After the Performance #

Setting a payment amount on a seat does not automatically pay the musician — it records what they are owed. The actual payout happens separately:

• Manual pay: On the Musicians tab, locate a filled seat that shows a dollar amount. Click the dollar amount to open the payment menu, then choose the method you want to use to pay.
• BookLive Autopay: If your group has Autopay enabled, BookLive automatically attempts to pay all musicians assigned to BookLive Pay seats at 11:00 AM the day after the performance. You will receive an email report detailing the results.

Once a musician has been paid, the seat displays a confirmation showing when the payment was made and via which method.

Tips & Notes #

• Payment amounts are not visible to other musicians on the same performance — only the group manager can see each seat’s pay rate.
• You can leave the Payment field at 0 when creating a seat if the rate isn’t finalized yet. Update it before paying out.
• Ensemble templates save the musician configuration but not a stored pay rate — you set the rate fresh each time you use a template. This keeps you flexible as rates change between gigs.
• For tip payouts, use the separate Pay Out Tips button at the top of the Musicians tab.

Related Articles #

• Understanding Personnel Lists in BookLive
• Creating and Managing Instrument Categories in BookLive