Managing several bands or projects at once

Most working musicians are in more than one band. The function band pays, the jazz trio is for the soul, the tribute act is a favour to a friend that somehow became 20 gigs a year. And then the Saturday in June when two of them are booked, because the request came through two different chats and you said yes to both.

Running several projects is normal. Running them from one head is not sustainable past about 40 gigs a year in total. Here is how to set them up so that the projects share you without colliding.

The two failure modes

Double bookings. You, or a member you share, are confirmed for two things on the same date. Usually because availability was asked in two places and answered from memory. The fix is one personal calendar that every band's confirmed dates and open requests flow into, and answering availability only from that calendar.

Cross-contamination. Band A's deposit lands in the account you also use for band B, band A's setlist ends up on band B's gig sheet, and a client of the trio gets a quote with the function band's name on it. The fix is separation: separate workspaces, separate money, separate materials, even if the same person runs them.

Everything below is a version of those two fixes.

Separate the bands; share the people

Each band is its own unit with its own members list, calendar, repertoire, setlists, quotes and packing lists, as if the other bands did not exist. The people overlap; the data does not.

That sounds like duplication and it is, a little. A drummer in three bands paints availability in three calendars. But the alternative, one merged calendar for everything, produces a mess where nobody can tell which project a rehearsal belongs to, and where the trio's bassist can see the function band's fees. Keep the units clean and use the person as the link.

Practically:

• One workspace, folder, or calendar per band. Named clearly.
• Each band has its own leader or manager, even if it is the same person wearing two hats.
• Each band has its own money: account or sub-account, split rules, fund. See a bank account for the band.
• Each band has its own quote template, email signature and client-facing name. Clients of one should not learn about the other from a footer.

The personal calendar as the master

Every musician in more than one project keeps one personal calendar into which all bands' confirmed gigs, requests and rehearsals flow. It does not matter whether that is a phone calendar or a paper diary; what matters is:

1. A confirmed gig from any band goes in the moment it is confirmed.
2. A request from any band goes in as "held" the moment you say "available", and stays until it is confirmed or declined.
3. You answer availability requests only after looking at it. Never from memory.

Point 2 is what most people skip. If you tell band A you are free on the 14th and then tell band B the same, whichever confirms second gets a dep, and it is your problem to find one. Holding the date for both is honest only if both leaders know it is held, not confirmed.

Priority rules between bands

When two projects want the same date, who wins? Decide in advance, in writing, with each band, so that it is a rule and not a betrayal:

• First confirmed wins. The simplest and fairest. A request is not a confirmation.
• The paying band wins over the passion project, but only if the passion project agreed to that when you joined it. Say it at the start: "the function band's confirmed dates take priority; I'll give you a month's notice and a dep."
• A confirmed gig is a confirmed gig. No band gets to bump another's confirmed gig for a better-paying one. The reputation cost lands on you personally, in both scenes.

Write your own rule into each band's agreement under "other projects".

Managers with several bands

If you manage bands for a living, or are the person who books three acts, the picture is the same with two additions.

One workspace per band, one login for you. You need to switch between bands quickly, see each band's calendar separately, and never have one band's clients see another band's data. You also need a role in each band that lets you book, quote and schedule without being the owner of every band's money; the leader of each band should keep that.

A pipeline view across bands. Enquiries come in for "a band", and you decide which act fits. Keep a simple list: enquiry, date, budget, which act you offered, status. The individual quotes and gigs live in each band's workspace; the list is your overview. Most managers do this in a spreadsheet and it is fine at this scale.

Shared members across your bands are the biggest risk. If your soul band and your party band share a drummer, every request for either needs his availability checked before you quote. Build the habit: availability request first, quote second. From request to confirmed gig has the order of operations.

Money between projects

Never let it mix. Each band's fees go to that band's account and are split by that band's rules. If you are the same person in both bands, you still pay yourself from each separately. It is more transfers and it is worth it: the first time a member of band A asks why the account shows a deposit for band B, you will be glad the answer is "it doesn't".

If you run a company that owns several acts (common for agencies and for leaders who run a "brand" with several line-ups), the accounts can be one company's, but the internal bookkeeping still separates by act, because you need to know which act is making money.

Materials and identity

• Separate repertoires, even if 30 songs overlap. The key, the arrangement and the tempo often differ between bands, and a shared list produces the wrong version on stage.
• Separate setlists and gig sheets, with the band's name on them.
• Separate packing kits. The trio's kit is not the function band's kit minus the PA; it is its own list.
• Separate socials, website pages and quote templates. A client should only ever see one band.

Do this today

• Put every confirmed gig and every held request from every project into one personal calendar. Look for collisions in the next 90 days. Fix them now.
• Tell each band, in writing, what your priority rule is.
• Check whether any band's money is in an account that also holds another band's money. If yes, that is this month's job.

Where expert.band helps

expert.band is built around one workspace per band: each band has its own members, roles, calendar, repertoire, setlists, quotes and packing kits, and a person can be a member of one band and the leader or manager of another from the same login. Availability is painted per band, and availability requests go out per gig, so a shared drummer answers each band's request separately and the leader sees the tally. One band costs 3.90 a month and each extra band you own is 2.00 more; members join free, so a manager running three acts pays for three workspaces and nobody else pays anything. See pricing.