Interesting to see this old thread resurrected. What I do now for all 3 ShoreGrass CDs is this: if I sell a CD at a gig (for $15) and someone who performs on that CD is playing with us at the gig, they get $2 for each one sold. The rest stays with me. So if all five recording artists are performing with us that night, $10 goes to the artists (including me and Frank) and the remaining $5 goes (to me) for expenses (which almost covers expenses).

Have not heard any complaints, and the musicians on the recordings are happy to have a stake in sales for gigs they play with us. If they are not playing the gig with us (band members come and go), they get nothing for those sales. And I'm happy that I don't have to keep track of former band members in perpetuity to dole out these sums.

Oh, and I gave each recording artist 10 CDs right after I received the first short-run from the duplicator.

This issue is still relevant to me because I'm planning to start working on a new project with many more musicians on the album. I plan to again give each one 10 CDs and royalty for each one sold at a gig they perform with us. Several will likely never perform with us, and several will otherwise never have a recording of their own music, so this is a pretty good prospect all around.