When you're offered a gig, the hard question isn't the organizer's - what does live music cost. It's your own: what should I charge? Set the price too low and you're working almost for free. Aim too high without being able to justify it and you lose the job. Somewhere in between sits a fee you can stand behind.
This guide starts at the floor, the Danish Musicians' Union minimum tariff, and builds up from there: how the market's band prices translate into your share per musician, what lifts the fee above the minimum, and how tax, VAT and a written agreement fit together. So you set a price from figures, not gut feeling.
Start at the floor: the DMF minimum tariff
From 1 April 2026 the Danish Musicians' Union (Dansk Musiker Forbund) set a single minimum tariff of 3,150 kr per musician. It's the pay a professional musician can expect as a minimum for an engagement - a floor, not a fixed price and not a ceiling. Real fees usually sit some way above once experience, tech and transport are added.
New in 2026 is that there's a single rate across all genres. It replaces the old system of eight categories and is a rise of nearly 20 percent on the previous tariff. Whether you play rhythmic, jazz or classical, the number is now the same.
Using the floor as your starting point tells you two things: how low you can realistically go, and when an offer sits below what the work is worth. That makes it easier to politely decline a fee that doesn't add up.
From the band's fee to your share
The market prices you see for a whole band cover every musician on stage. To know what lands with you, divide the total fee by the number of musicians and subtract shared costs like transport and tech.
A concrete example: a four-piece band at 15,000-30,000 kr for an evening works out at 3,750-7,500 kr per musician before costs. That sits comfortably above the floor of 3,150 kr. The table below shows the typical market ranges by line-up, what your share per musician becomes, and the DMF floor for the same size.
Note that the lowest figures in the solo and duo rows can dip below the floor. That's because they also cover short appearances and private jobs, where the fee is negotiated freely under the tariff. For a full evening you should aim at the floor or above.
| Line-up | Total market price | Your share per musician | DMF floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo musician / troubadour | 2,500-6,500 kr | 2,500-6,500 kr | 3,150 kr |
| Duo | 6,000-11,000 kr | 3,000-5,500 kr | 6,300 kr |
| Trio / vocal group | 9,000-16,000 kr | 3,000-5,300 kr | 9,450 kr |
| 4-piece band | 15,000-30,000 kr | 3,750-7,500 kr | 12,600 kr |
| Orchestra (7+ musicians) | 30,000-50,000 kr+ | 4,300-7,100 kr | 22,050 kr+ |
Your share is the total fee divided by the number of musicians - calculated here with the lowest headcount in each group, so the figure shows the best case. More musicians split the same fee. The DMF floor is the number of musicians times 3,150 kr.
The ranges are typical market prices musicians set themselves in Denmark - not prices from Dionysia. You set your own fee. On Dionysia you see open gigs and bid with your own fee, so you compare jobs and price your own night. Bidding on gigs you reach through shared links or invitations is free; if you want to search and browse every open gig on the platform yourself, you can opt in to Artist Premium.
What decides where you land
Within each range, a handful of things decide whether you sit near the bottom or the top. Experience and reputation weigh heaviest. A seasoned name with many parties behind it can charge more, because the organizer is buying a safer night.
Line-up pulls both ways: more musicians means a higher total fee, but also more people to split it between. Playing time is the other big factor. Three 45-minute sets is the standard for a party, and if the organizer wants more - four sets, music during dinner, or playing until dawn - that's more hours of work and costs extra.
Tech is worth pricing deliberately. If you bring your own PA and lights, that's real value you deliver, unlike when the gear has to be rented. Genre and specialisation, the venue's size and the size of the crowd also feed into where in the range you can place yourself.
Transport and season - the items many forget
Transport falls outside the tariff and is agreed separately. If you live far from the venue, the travel should go into the fee so it doesn't eat into your real hourly rate. A transparent reference point is the state's tax-free mileage allowance, which in 2026 is 3.94 kr per km for the first 20,000 km. Many use it as a starting point for the round trip.
The season also shows in what you can charge. The wedding season from May to September and the Christmas-lunch and corporate-party season in November and December are the busiest stretches. If you're in demand, you can charge 20 to 50 percent more for a Saturday in high season than for a quiet weekday outside it. If your gig falls in the busy period, there's room to price towards the top of the range.
Tax, VAT and the agreement
A fee for short engagements, typically one to three days, is usually paid as B-income. No tax is withheld in advance, so you pay your own labour-market contribution (AM-bidrag) of 8 percent and B-tax. A useful rule of thumb is to set aside 35 to 45 percent so you don't face an unexpected bill later.
If you run your music as a business, you invoice with a CVR number instead. Ongoing, regular work or an actual orchestra employment is often treated as A-income, where you are an employee.
Your artistic performance is exempt from VAT under the Danish VAT Act (momsloven § 13, stk. 1, nr. 7). So you don't add VAT on top of the fee for the performance itself. Non-artistic services, such as when you sell sound engineering or consulting, are VAT-liable. If you're unsure of your own tax status, check it with an adviser before you send the first invoice.
How to set your price without underbidding yourself
It's tempting to go low to win the job, especially early on. But a fee below the floor drags the whole market with it and signals that the work is worth less than it is. Know your floor of 3,150 kr per musician, add your experience, tech and transport, and set a price you can justify.
If the organizer can't reach it, negotiate on playing time or the scope of the job rather than cutting the hourly rate itself. A shorter set or an earlier finish is easier to give on than underbidding yourself. Be concrete about what the price covers: number of sets, tech and transport. Then the organizer compares like with like, and you don't lose out on vagueness.
On Dionysia you can see open gigs and bid with your own fee. That way you set the price yourself rather than accepting whatever is offered. Bidding through a shared link or an invitation is free; if you want to search every open gig on the platform yourself, you can opt in to Artist Premium.