The stuff you'd want to know before betting a gig on this.

The honest answer: your charts keep working, but new songs don't. When you start a gig, every chart in your set downloads to your tablet before the first page opens. Your bandmates' tablets do the same. If the connection drops after that, you can keep turning pages through the whole set.

Anything added during the gig needs a connection: accepting a request, splicing it into the set, or getting it onto your bandmates' charts. Your audience can still request and tip from their own phones on their own data, and you'll see those requests as soon as you're back online.

If a bandmate drops off, the songs you added show up in the right spot in their set when they reconnect, and their tablet stays where they are. One exception for now: if they're just one song past that spot, it may jump them back to the new song, so they'd swipe forward to catch up.

Two things we recommend, and do ourselves:

• Have a backup connection. Use the venue's wifi if it's solid, and keep your phone's hotspot ready in case it isn't. Switching takes a few seconds, and your charts stay loaded while you do it.
• If the connection drops, don't refresh the page. Your charts are loaded in that tab. A refresh has to download them again, and it can't without a connection.

What's coming: charts that stay on your tablet even after a refresh, so a dropped connection costs you nothing but new requests until it's back.

A tablet. That's what this was built for, and it's what we play from: one iPad or Android tablet runs your charts, your setlist, and your request drawer. No laptop, no second screen, nothing extra required.

It runs in a browser, so it opens on a phone or laptop too. A tablet is just easier to read mid-song.

Using a Bluetooth page turner? It works. Set it to Page Up/Down or arrow keys, and tap the screen once after you open the chart viewer (or come back to it from another app) so it's listening. Check each pedal with 🎛 Page Turner before the gig.

On an iPad, the pedal and full screen only work together if you open the chart viewer from your home screen.

No, and neither does your audience. It all runs in the browser.

For you, the browser is all you need. The one exception: on an iPad, if you want full screen and a page turner at the same time, add the chart viewer to your home screen (on Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen) and open it from there. That icon is just the chart viewer. Your songs, setlists, and settings stay in the console, and you'll log in once more the first time you open it.

For your crowd: they scan your QR code, pick a song, and pay with a card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. No app, no account, no login.

Requests stay open through your breaks, which is when people are actually on their phones. There's nothing to pause or restart between sets.

To wind things down at the end of the night, turn on Last Call: set "Show wraps at" to the end of your last set when you start the gig. Leave it blank and requests stay open until you end the gig.

See what it looks like →

It works backward from your wrap time. As the end of the night gets close, your crowd page shows a Last Call banner. Once the requests already in your queue would fill the time you have left, it stops taking new ones, so nobody tips for a song you won't get to.

To do that math, it needs to know how long your songs run. It uses the average length of the songs in tonight's set: 4 minutes each unless you tell it otherwise. If your songs run long, set your own default in Account → Gig defaults, or give individual songs their own length in Songs → Library. It also keeps a 10-minute safety buffer, which you can change there too.

For what it's worth, songs already in the queue can still get boosted after Last Call closes. No new requests, just more tips on songs you're already going to play.

See what it looks like →

Yes. Tap 🔍 Add Song in the chart viewer, search your whole catalog by title, artist, or key, and it drops in right after the song you're on. Your bandmates get it on their tablets in the same spot.

Encores just got a lot easier.

See what it looks like →

A 🔔 badge in the top corner of your chart viewer shows how many requests are waiting. It updates every time you turn a page and every 45 seconds in between, so you'll see new ones within a minute. Tap it to open your request drawer.

There's no sound or phone alert, so nothing pings you in the middle of a song.

See what it looks like →

It ends itself after 12 hours with no new requests. Until then your crowd page is still taking them, so tap End Gig on Tonight when you pack up.

If you set a Last Call time, requests close at the end of the night either way. And starting your next gig always ends the last one.

Free to sign up, free to run. We take 10% of each tip. No plans, no monthly bill.

Stripe charges its own card processing fee, roughly 2.9% plus 30¢ per tip, and that comes out of your share.

On a $10 tip, you receive about $8.41. The full table is on our pricing page, including why small tips lose proportionally more.

$3. Your crowd can tap $5, $10, or $20, or type in their own amount, as long as it's at least $3.

The minimum is there because of card fees. Stripe takes 30¢ off every tip no matter how small, so below $3 most of it would never reach you. Our pricing page shows what you keep at each amount.

Stripe pays out to your bank on its normal schedule, usually within a couple of business days. Your very first payout takes longer, often a week or two, while Stripe verifies who you are. That's Stripe's process, not ours, and we can't speed it up.

Your tips are never pooled with anyone else's. Each one is passed straight to your own Stripe account the moment the card is charged. We don't hold your money.

To see your payouts, log in to your Stripe Express dashboard.

Yes. Money → Tips shows your tips for any date range (this month, last year, all time, or dates you pick): your total, your average per gig, and how many requests you got and how many you played. Tap a gig to see that night on its own. Export CSV turns all of it into a spreadsheet.

Money → Payouts takes out our 10% and Stripe's card fee and shows what you get, so it matches what Stripe sends you. Your Stripe Express dashboard has every deposit.

See what it looks like →

To take real money, yes. It's free and takes a few minutes: go to Money → Payouts. Stripe asks for the same things any bank does (legal name, address, bank account, usually the last four of your SSN) on its own secure page. We never see those details.

You can sign up, build your catalog, and even go live without it. Until Stripe is connected, your crowd page runs in Preview: requests are free, tips are off, and the crowd page and any signs you print carry a PREVIEW watermark. Great for a test run, not for a real crowd.

No. Tips from your gig go to you. Your bandmates need free accounts to follow your set on their own tablets, and that's all: no bank details, no verification, nothing.

Every tip lands in the account that ran the gig. If your band splits tips, you handle that the same way you'd split a tip jar.

If a bandmate wants to collect tips at their own gigs, they connect their own Stripe account and run their own. Every account can do both.

No. Every account is free and identical, and adding bandmates costs nothing. A five-piece pays the same 10% of tips as a solo act.

Tips are income, and reporting them is up to you. We don't withhold anything.

If you pass the reporting threshold for the year, you'll get a 1099-K from Stripe. It shows up in your Stripe Express dashboard, or comes by mail if you haven't gone paperless. Plenty of performers won't reach it, but tips are taxable either way.

We're not tax advisors. Talk to someone who is.

Rare, but it happens, usually because someone didn't recognize the charge on their statement, not because anything went wrong.

If it does, the tip is reversed and Stripe adds a $15 dispute fee. Under our terms, that's on you. We'll let you know, pass along what you need to respond, and recover the amount from your future tips.

The best prevention is making sure people know what they paid for. The payment screen tells them the charge will show up as BRIBEBAND, and a "thanks" from the stage does more than you'd think. More in our refund policy.

No. Never. Accept or decline anything, for any reason: the set's full, you just played it, the room's not right, you'd rather not. Declining is normal, and it's one tap in your request drawer.

Your audience is told before they pay. The payment screen says, in bold, "Requests aren't guaranteed," and that a tip is a thank-you to you, not a purchase.

The tip stands. The payment screen says tips are final before anyone pays, so nobody's surprised. It's the same as cash in a tip jar: it's a thank-you, not a ticket.

That said, if you want to make something right, email support@bribetheband.live and we'll refund it for you. A refund button of your own is on the way.

No. They don't get a message. The song just drops out of the queue on your crowd page.

If a request clearly mattered to someone, like a birthday or a dedication, a quick "can't get to that one tonight, thank you!" from the stage goes a long way.

No. Your crowd can only request songs in your own library, so nobody can request Free Bird unless you put Free Bird in it.

They can request anything in your library, not just tonight's set. Accept one and it goes in as your next song. If it's already in tonight's set, you can leave it where it is. If there's a song you don't want requested (one you're still learning, or one that only works with the full band), check Hide from request page on it in Songs → Library.

You don't have to move anything. Each request in your request drawer shows where that song sits in tonight's set, like "up next" or "3 songs before it."

If it's coming up, tap In your set and it stays right where it is. When you get to it, the request pops up with every note and tip, so you can say thanks before you play it. Your crowd can keep boosting it until then.

Want to play it now instead? Accept moves it up to next.

Rather not take requests for your planned set at all? Turn on No requests for songs in tonight's set list, in Account → Gig defaults or for one night in tonight's rules. The songs in the setlist you go live with show on your crowd page as "In tonight's set list" and can't be requested. Songs added during the night, from a request or the chart viewer, can still be requested.

See what it looks like →

Yes. The Support Local Music button on your crowd page is a tip with no song attached, for anyone who just wants to say thanks. The payment screen tells them there's nothing to play, so nobody's waiting on a song.

See what it looks like →

Only if you want them to. Turn on Allow requests without a tip in Account → Gig defaults, and your crowd gets a No Tip button when they request a song. It's off by default, and you can turn it on for one night or for every gig.

A fan who wants to boost a song that's already in the queue always has to tip.

A few things, all yours to control:

• While a song is waiting in the queue, picking it again boosts it. Your crowd sees one song with a growing tip total, and it moves up the list. You see one row in your request drawer, with the total and every note. A boost always takes a tip, even on nights you allow requests without one.
• Max requests per song limits how many times a song can come back in one night.
• Cooldown after playing blocks a song for a set number of minutes after you've played it.

Set your defaults in Account → Gig defaults and every new gig starts with them. To change them for one night, use Tonight's rules on your Tonight screen, before or during the gig. Your defaults stay as they are, unless you tick Make these my defaults too before you go live. During a gig, Reset request counts gives every song a fresh count.

When a song hits its limit, the crowd sees a friendly message instead of an error.

No. Your crowd page shows songs and tip totals, never notes.

Notes come to you, and to your bandmates once you've said yes to that request. When the song comes up, everyone onstage sees "Happy anniversary, Sarah!" so the dedication lands with the whole band. Nobody in the room sees it unless you read it out.

Some nights yes, some nights no. There's no app to download and no login, which removes the two biggest barriers. But a QR code in a loud room still needs you to point at it and say something.

What works for us: mention it once early and once mid-set, and treat it as an invitation for your audience to be part of the show all night long.

Make the code easy to find, too. Account → QR signs in your console prints posters, postcards, and table tents. Or download just the QR code (PNG or JPG) and use it in your own design software. Either way, it points at your permanent crowd page, so a sign you print tonight still works next year.

Most don't, and many won't even notice. But some venues have opinions about performers taking their own tips, especially if the venue already splits tips or has its own tip jar. Ask before your first night rather than after.

It helps to tell them it costs them nothing. BTB doesn't touch their registers or need anything from them.

Faster than you'd think, because you don't need charts to get started. A song only needs a title and artist to show up on your crowd page and take requests. If you know your songs by heart or read from something else, that's all it takes: add each one in Songs → Library → Add a Song.

When you're ready to add charts, it depends where they're coming from:

• Already have PDFs: use Bulk Add to select a batch of charts at once. Name your files "Title - Artist.pdf" and it fills in the title and artist for you. You'll check everything in a table before it uploads, and you can import a CSV of titles, artists, and keys if you've already got one (there's a blank template to download). A 50-song library is an evening at most, usually much less.
• Coming from Ultimate Guitar: figure about a minute per song to download each chart as a PDF, then Bulk Add them. A 40-song set is a real evening's work. We'd rather say that than have you discover it at song twelve.
• Coming from OnSong or SongbookPro: those apps keep files on your device and don't offer a live export, so it's one export per song, then Bulk Add.

Until a song has a chart, it shows as a song card in your set, so you can still play it and take requests for it.

Yes. Title and artist is enough. It shows on your crowd page, takes requests and tips, and appears as a song card in your set. Add the chart later by tapping the song in Songs → Library, or never.

Yes. Tap the song in Songs → Library, then Delete PDF, and the file is deleted from our storage. The song stays in your library and setlists, and shows as a song card until you add a new chart. To swap in a new version instead, just upload the new PDF.

If the chart is a link instead of an upload, you'll see Remove link. That removes the link and doesn't touch the file wherever it lives.

Deleting a whole song deletes its chart too. Past tips and requests for it stay in Money.

Your audience never sees them. The crowd page shows song titles and artist names only.

Charts are visible to you, and to bandmates while they're joined to your live gig. When they leave or the gig ends, their access ends too.

How they're stored, plainly: every chart you upload gets its own random, unguessable web address, and we only hand those addresses to you and your bandmates during a gig. They aren't behind a login, though, so anyone who got hold of one specific link could open that one chart. Treat it like an "anyone with the link" share link. We're moving to private, expiring links.

If you link to a chart hosted somewhere else instead of uploading it, it's only as private as wherever it lives.

PDF, and that's the only real rule. Multi-page charts work fine: pages flow in order within the song, and each song flows into the next in your set order, so the whole night is one continuous stream you swipe through.

There's no page limit. Each chart can be up to 10MB, which is plenty, since a normal chord chart is well under 1MB. The cap keeps big files, like high-resolution photos or scans of paper charts, from slowing you down. Every chart downloads when you start a gig, and songs added during the gig load right then, so smaller files mean less waiting.

Upload your PDFs rather than linking to them when you can. A link has to go straight to the PDF file itself, not a share page (a Google Drive share link won't open), and uploaded charts get the privacy protections above.

On a dark stage, tap 🌓 Stage Mode in the chart viewer. Your charts flip to light text on a dark background, so your screen isn't a bright white rectangle facing the crowd, and it's easier on your eyes too.

Outside on a bright day, leave it off and turn your brightness all the way up. Dark text on white is the easiest thing to read in sunlight.

Each tablet remembers its own setting, so every bandmate can choose for themselves.

See what it looks like →

Yes. Nothing about it is cover-specific. Your song library is whatever you put in it, and your crowd can request your originals just like anything else.

No. Public performance licensing (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR) is almost always the venue's responsibility, and we don't provide it or check for it. We're a tool for requests and charts, not a licensing service.

Share the link or read them the code from the Bandmates panel on Tonight. They open it on their own tablet, log in to their own free account (or make one right there), and they're following tonight's set.

When you add a song, it shows up on their tablets within seconds, in the same spot as yours.

See what it looks like →

Tonight's set and its charts, on their own tablet. When a request you've said yes to comes up, they see its note and tip too, so the whole band knows who it's for.

They can't see your request drawer, your song library, your reporting, or anything about your payouts.

Just the gig. Their access ends when the gig ends, and you can remove anyone anytime from the Bandmates panel. Each gig gets a new code, so they'll join fresh next time.

Yes, the same way you do: Page Up/Down or arrow keys, tap the screen once, and check it with 🎛 Page Turner.

On an iPad, to get full screen and the pedal together, they add the chart viewer to their home screen (on Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen) and open it from there. It asks for a gig code: they type the one from your Bandmates panel, and they're following your set. If they accidentally close it mid-gig, opening it again puts them right back where they were.

You could, but we wouldn't. Anyone logged in to your account can do everything you can: change your songs, see your payouts, and run your request drawer. Separate free accounts take a minute to set up and keep your console yours.

Yes. Start with our demo crowd page to see exactly what your audience would see. Then sign up free, add a few songs, and look at your own crowd page. The only thing you need Stripe for is taking real money.

Not set up with Stripe yet? You can still go live in Preview.

Yes, and most of it you can do yourself. Every saved setlist has Export PDF (one songbook), Export ZIP (each chart as its own file), and Export Text (the song list). Your tips and requests export as a spreadsheet from Money → Tips.

Want your whole library at once? Email support@bribetheband.live and we'll send it.

They're your charts. We're hosting them, not holding them.

It stays up, so people can browse your songs anytime. Between gigs it shows an "Offstage — For Now" card, and nobody can request or tip until you start your next gig.

Yes, gig by gig. Set Name on the crowd page on your Tonight screen when you get ready, and it shows at the top of your crowd page, which is handy for a solo night versus a band night. You can change it mid-gig under Change tonight's rules, and it carries over to your next gig until you change it again. Leave it blank to use your account name.

It's also the name on your fans' card statements (after BRIBEBAND*, shortened to fit), so they recognize the charge later.

To change your account name itself, email support@bribetheband.live.

Your Stripe account is yours, and so is the money in it. Every tip is passed straight to your Stripe account the moment it's charged, so nothing is waiting on us.

For your songs and charts: if we ever shut down, you'll get at least 30 days' notice to export everything.

One working musician who got tired of shouting song titles across a stage, and built this for his own gigs first. It's been running at real shows since the summer of 2026, both at his solo gigs and with his five-piece rock cover band. If something's broken, you're talking to the person who built it.

See what it looks like →