Per diems can be a major expense in your tour budget. They also tell your crew exactly how much you value them.
(In case you didn’t know: the term comes from the Latin “per diem,” meaning “per day,” and in touring it refers to the daily cash allowance you give each band and crew member to cover their meals and incidental expenses while on the road. It sounds straightforward, and in principle it is, but paying per diems is expensive. Unfortunately, experienced session musicians and older crew expect them.)
What Should You Budget?
There is no standard daily rate for per diems. We know food prices have increased. Think about the last time you bought hot food on a day out. And you won’t get much change from £20 when buying snacks from a motorway service station.1
I budget a minimum £30 a day per diem per touring person. Whatever rate you set, it is supposed to cover three meals and a few incidentals without leaving your touring people out of pocket. Which can be expensive.
For example, per diems of £30 a day for an artist who is on stage with three other session musicians and employs three crew will total £210.00 a day (£30 x 7 = £210.00). Over a ten-date tour, that’s £2,100.00—a not inconsiderable amount of money.
Unless…
Three Scenarios That Affect How Much You Pay
Scenario One: Promoter-Supplied Meals or Buyouts
The promoter is supplying a meal, or cash buyout, on show days. Budget a lesser daily amount in this scenario. The band and crew receive a guaranteed meal (or money to buy one) on show days. You could then reduce the per diems on those days, say from £30 to £20 a day.
I try to implement this small saving when preparing budgets for my artist manager clients. This means I have to ensure the promoter really provides a proper meal or the cash buyout. If the deal memo’s lacking or the promoter hasn’t set aside enough money, getting a decent buyout could get sticky.
Scenario Two: Tour Catering
The tour is carrying catering and a touring chef cooks three hearty meals a day in the venue. Carrying catering is cost-effective for the artist and promoter at the 1,500+ capacity level; if your artist is selling out 1,500+ tickets a night you probably don’t need to worry too much about per diem costs.
In this scenario, you would only pay per diems on travel days and non-show days. Hopefully, you have decent quotes from the catering company and the promoter has budgeted enough in their costings.
Scenario Three: Tour Support
The record company supports the tour with ‘tour support’. This money is recoupable—the artist has to pay it back. Depending on the specifics of the recording contract, tour advances, and the artist’s performance in terms of streams and downloads, this could be a lengthy repayment process. And being unrecouped looks ‘bad’ for an artist.
By not giving per diems to artists on the contract who are repaying tour support, we can reduce their tour support requests. Saving £100 a day (four band members at £30 per diems each) will add up, especially if your artist has a year-long touring campaign mapped out.
I have only worked with one artist manager who implemented this strategy. We needed less tour support because of it, which meant I had to push harder to get the promoters to agree on the catering details.
The Administrative Side
Paying per diems is an administrative chore. You, as artist manager, or your business management/accountant must ensure there is enough money in the band’s account to pay out these regular amounts. Someone needs to collect the bank account information for each of the touring personnel and set up the transfers. Then, agree on the payment schedule—daily, weekly, or once for the tour—and set up the process. Business managers charge for administering such payroll activity; 15% of the total of the transactions is the norm.
The alternative is to pay in cash. This means getting cash ready at the start of the tour and often exchanging money (FX) to give people daily allowances fitting for each country. I advise against this unless you have a large amount of currency left over from a previous tour.
The Bottom Line
Paying per diems is expensive. Your tour may be self-funded (no record company tour support) in which case it’s hard to justify another two grand on the bottom line.
The welfare of the touring personnel is important, though. Food supplied by promoters at venues can be shocking. Promoters don’t enjoy offering cash buyouts if they can pay less to provide a ‘home-made’ meal instead (why would they?). And session musicians and older tour crew expect per diems as a hangover from touring in the eighties and nineties.
All I can suggest is to pay per diems and make savings wherever you can. Reduce the rate if a meal/buyout is being provided by the promoter. Negotiate the rates with session musicians and crew. Taking a reduced rate is preferable for crew to having the tour cancelled because it’s going to cost too much.
And if you are paying per diems, please pay them on time, in the agreed currency, ideally at the start of each week or at the beginning of the tour. Touring personnel shouldn’t have to chase you for money they’re owed, and nothing sours a working relationship faster than feeling like you’re begging for your own wages.
- *Admiral Insurance cited in Wales Online (2019) ‘Most expensive motorway service stations’, Wales Online, [2025]. Available at: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/most-expensive-motorway-service-stations-17373657 (Accessed: 20 January 2026). ↩︎