Booking live music looks like sending one message. It is closer to fourteen. This page walks through every part of it, who normally carries each one, and where it tends to fall over, so you can decide how much of it you want to keep.
One booked night is fourteen small jobs, and twelve of them happen after the yes.
Deciding what the night is for comes first, and it is the part most often skipped. A Saturday that needs to hold a full room and a Sunday afternoon that needs to keep families another drink are different briefs, and an act that is right for one is wrong for the other.
Then: shortlisting performers who actually play that, checking they are free, agreeing a fee, agreeing set times and a finish time, writing it down somewhere both sides can see, briefing the act on the room and the volume, confirming the week of, being reachable on the day, sorting out where they load in, paying them, paying their super, keeping the invoice and the record, and deciding whether to book them again.
Almost none of that is choosing a musician. That is why booking feels heavier than it sounds: the choosing is the enjoyable ten minutes at the front, and everything behind it is administration with a deadline attached.
They get described as if they are alternatives to each other. They are not. They divide the fourteen jobs differently.
You find the performer, you agree the fee, you chase the confirmation and you pay them. Lowest fee on paper, and you keep all fourteen jobs including the super and the paperwork.
A calendar and a chat thread built for entertainment. It makes your admin faster and tidier. You still choose, still chase, still carry the night when somebody pulls out, and you pay a subscription for the privilege.
A directory of profiles with rates. Good for discovery, and discovery was never the hard part. You are still the one reading profiles, guessing at fit, and finding out on the night whether you guessed right.
Someone else carries the twelve jobs behind the yes. The trade is that you are trusting their ear, so the agency is only as good as the person choosing.
$360 plus GST for a three-hour live set, and $350 a set when a venue books two or more nights in the same week.
That is two nights for $700 and three for $1,050, which over a year is $1,040 back on two nights a week and $1,560 on three. The performer brings their own instruments and PA. Filming, photography, lighting and projection are quoted separately and never folded into a set price.
Cost is not only the fee. A performer paid directly by a venue is a performer whose super that venue may owe, and that obligation does not disappear because the arrangement was casual. Book through Open Dawn and the performer is paid by Open Dawn, so the super is ours and we pay it every time.
Events are quoted for the event rather than at the set rate, because a ceremony, a canape hour and a full evening are three different jobs sharing a day.
Four failures, in the order venues actually meet them.
Technically excellent and completely wrong for a Sunday lunch. This is a briefing failure rather than a musician failure, and it is the most common one.
Usually the same week, sometimes the same day. What matters is not whether it happens but how fast you hear about it and who is looking for the replacement.
Too loud kills the conversation and the second round. Agreeing volume and a finish time before load-in costs one sentence and prevents most of it.
An invoice that never arrives, a super obligation nobody named, a year end where nothing adds up. Slow, quiet, and the one that costs the most.
You approve the night. We do everything else.
Open Dawn is a live music booking agency run by a working musician. Yannai has played more than 500 gigs himself and has booked live music for rooms from The Landing in Alkimos to Lake Karrinyup Country Club, which is the ear the act is matched with.
We choose the performer for the room, brief them on the crowd, the volume and the finish, and confirm the night in writing. We pay the performer and their super. You get one invoice, a tax invoice for every night, and a summary your accountant can open. If an act pulls out you get a phone call within the hour, we go looking for a replacement and put whoever we find to you, and if nobody can cover it there is no invoice for that night.
No lock-in, no notice period, no exit fee, and nothing renews on its own. One set is a complete booking, so trying it costs a single night.
The local version of this page, with the steps, the prices and the areas we cover.
Book live music →What booking platforms do well, what they leave with you, and which one suits how you want to work.
Compare the two →Regular live music for pubs, bars, taverns and restaurants, week after week.
See how it works →It carries the work behind the yes. Choosing a performer who suits the room, agreeing the fee and the set times, briefing the act, confirming it in writing, paying the performer, paying their super, and handling it when somebody pulls out. Choosing the musician is the visible part and the smallest part.
It depends on whether you want the work or the result. Booking directly is cheaper on the fee and leaves you every other job, including the paperwork and the phone call at 4pm when somebody is sick. An agency costs more per night and takes those jobs away. If you enjoy booking and have the time, book directly.
For a venue, $360 plus GST for a three-hour set, and $350 a set on two or more nights in the same week. That is $1,040 back over a year on two nights a week and $1,560 on three. Events are quoted for the event, because a ceremony and a full evening are different jobs.
Whoever pays the musician. A venue paying a sole trader performer directly is the one carrying that question, and it does not go away because the booking was casual. Booked through Open Dawn, the performer is paid by Open Dawn, so the super is ours and we pay it every time.
You get a phone call within the hour rather than an email the next morning. We go looking for a replacement and put whoever we find to you, and if nobody can cover the night there is no invoice for it. You are never billed for music that did not play.
Perth and the metropolitan area is where we work week to week, and we travel beyond it for the right booking. Ask about where you are and you will get a straight answer rather than a maybe.
Call 0491 616 579 or send the form. You will get a straight answer, and a night you can try before anything else is agreed.