Paul and anyone else....I forgot to add something extremely important.

When you are dealing in money matters (and not just MUSIC money matters), ALWAYS find a way to get a check from the other person. Example: if you want me to play this date for you, please send me a $10 token deposit as a measure of good faith.

That payment I had to wait a year for where they attached her pay check, took a year BECAUSE they had to "attach her paycheck" on a weekly schedule. If I had any kind of a personal check from her to present a copy of it to the judge, showing her bank account number and bank, the judge could and would have issued an order to the Sheriff to "withdraw" the monies owed from her bank account.

If there is any "trouble in Paradise," and you have to go into litigation, and you win, and the defendant still refuses to pay, you now have the persons bank account #. The judge will order the money to be removed from her bank account and into your pocket!

In later years I took to advising a person I am recording, with a pocket recorder, the part of the conversation where we are entering into an "oral" agreement (over the phone OR in person). It's as good as a written contract. The whole thing is a classic "necessary evil!"