What The Bands Were Paid To Play Woodstock In 1969 Adjusted For Today’s Inflation

In 1969, the original Woodstock was packed with entertainment.  Jimi Hendrix was the highest paid artist to play Woodstock.  What he was paid may not seem like much, but when adjusted for inflation, it was quite a chunk of change.

There is a list of what everyone was paid that's been circulating around on the internet for a long time.  Those fees have now been adjusted for inflation by www.ultimateguitar.com.

Here's the list of artists and their earnings adjusted for today's inflation:

1.  Jimi Hendrix, $18,000 then, which is roughly $115,000 now

2.  Blood, Sweat & Tears, $15,000 . . . $95,000 now

3.  Joan Baez and Creedence Clearwater Revival, both at $10,000 . . . $63,000 now

5.  The Band, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Sly and the Family Stone, all at $7,500 . . . $48,000 now

9.  Canned Heat, $6,500 . . . $41,000 now

10.  The Who, $6,250 . . . $40,000 now

11.  Richie Havens, $6,000 . . . $38,000 now

12.  Arlo Guthrie and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, both at $5,000 . . . $32,000 now

14.  Ravi Shankar, $4,500 . . . $28,500 now

15.  Johnny Winter, $3,750 . . . $24,000 now

16.  Ten Years After, $3,250 . . . $20,000 now

17.  Country Joe and the Fish, $2,500 . . . $16,000 now

18.  Grateful Dead and Incredible String Band, both at $2,250 . . . $14,000 now

20.  Mountain and Tim Hardin, both at $2,000 . . . $12,700 now

22.  Joe Cocker, $1,375 . . . $9,000 now

23.  Sweetwater, $1,250 . . . $8,000 now

24.  John B. Sebastian, $1,000 . . . $6,300 now

25.  Melanie and Santana, both at $750 . . . $5,000 now

27.  Sha Na Na, $700 . . . $4,500 now

28.  Keef Hartley, $500 . . . $3,100 now

29.  The New England psychedelic rock band Quill, $375 . . . $2,400 now

The entire lineup costs over $141,000 in 1969 which would be over $895,000 today.  Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Bert Sommer's  pay is unknown.  The list doesn't include Iron Butterfly's earnings,they were supposed to receive $5,000 plus another $5,000 for their light show, but they never showed.