Put the deal on paper before the artist is on the lineup.
A free, plain-language performance agreement for booking DJs, bands and artists. Payment schedule, W-9 requirement, cancellation scale, force majeure, an optional radius clause and a technical and hospitality rider. Editable Word document.
Tell us where to send it. Free, no watermark.
An accepted offer is a handshake. When a DJ cancels two weeks out or a deposit is disputed, what you can enforce is what you wrote down. This agreement covers the points that actually get argued, in language both sides can read without a lawyer on the call, and it starts the W-9 conversation before any money moves. It is a general template, so the how-to page points out the four spots most likely to need a local change.
Guarantee, a 20 / 30 / 50 schedule with the same timing as our Artist Offer Sheet (at signing, 60 days out, 7 days out), an optional attendance bonus, and a completed W-9 as a condition of payment. If a payment is late, the artist can give notice and cancel, and does not have to go on stage until what was due has been paid.
A sliding scale for the purchaser cancelling, worded as a reasonable estimate of the artist's loss, not a penalty, plus a refund and expense clause for the artist cancelling. Force majeure covers weather, illness and government orders, and says plainly that slow ticket sales are not an excuse.
An optional clause that keeps the artist from announcing or playing a nearby show around yours. You set the distance and the window, and a built-in fallback lets a court narrow it instead of throwing it out.
Who holds the venue's music licenses, who checks IDs, how the artist's own music sources are handled, and a one-page Exhibit A for equipment, green room, guest list, hotel, ground transport and buyouts.
ACH to every artist, same-day on Growth and higher plans, automatic W-9 collection at the time you send the offer, approval workflows for your finance team, and a clean sync to QuickBooks.
See Cleo Pay for venues
