The gigging band's guide to staying organised

The short answer: a band playing forty-plus shows a year is a small operation, and it needs operational tools - a setlist system built from the versions you play live, a calendar the whole band trusts, riders and stage plots that are always findable, dep-friendly access, and shared books. BandVolt covers all five in one workspace priced per band.

New bands lose files. Established bands lose margins - the twenty minutes before soundcheck spent hunting the rider, the dep learning the wrong version of a song, the gig fee nobody logged.

At five gigs a year that friction is a story. At fifty, it is a tax. Here is the system that removes it.

Setlists from the versions you actually play

An established band’s live set has drifted a long way from the records - extended intros, medleys, the abridged edit for festival slots. BandVolt setlists are built from your own library, and each setlist can use any version of a song: album cut in one set, the extended live arrangement in another. Rehearsals run to the real lengths and real endings, and the set times add up to the actual slot.

Every set links to its gig on the calendar - the Friday club show and the Saturday festival run different sets, and nobody has to ask which is which. In rehearsal, playback mode shows key, BPM, lyrics, and time signature per song.

A diary the whole band trusts

Gigs, rehearsals, sessions, and travel days on one shared calendar, visible to everyone, with notifications when something changes. When the promoter moves doors by an hour, you edit the event once - not the group chat, the spreadsheet, and three calendars.

The rider is always where it should be

Tech rider, stage plot, input list, press shots, the EPK: in organised folders every member can reach, stored at full quality, attached to the gigs they apply to. The 11pm “does anyone have the rider as a PDF?” message retires.

Deps and subs without the panic

When the regular drummer can’t make the run, the dep needs three things fast: the setlist, the recordings, and the keys and tempos. Invite them to the band and they get all of it - including the live versions of the songs, so they learn the arrangement you play, not the one on the record. On Premium you can instead invite external collaborators to specific songs or albums/EPs - still not the whole workspace - which suits one-off session players.

Books that survive the tax return

Gig fees in, fuel and accommodation out, receipts attached, rehearsal room rent recurring automatically. Year summaries mean the annual “what did the band actually make?” conversation takes minutes, and every member is looking at the same numbers.

Priced like a band, not a company

BandVolt’s Basic tier is free and includes setlists, the calendar, versioning, comments, finances, and 10 workspace slots. Premium is £9.99 a month for the whole band - about £2 each for a 5-piece - with 25 workspace slots, 50 GB storage, external collaborators, and public links for whole albums and EPs. Need more room? Packs of 10 slots are £2.49/month on Premium.

Put your live operation in one place.