Adding new songs: proposals, votes and vetoes

The singer wants 3 new ballads, the guitarist has been pushing the same 1985 deep cut for 2 years, and the bass player has quietly given up suggesting anything. Meanwhile the list has not gained a genuinely floor-filling song since spring. New songs are the lifeblood of a cover band and most bands choose them by whoever nags the longest.

A written process is fairer, faster and, above all, means fewer songs get half-learned and abandoned.

Why "just suggest it in the chat" fails

• Suggestions get lost in 300 messages about parking.
• The same people always suggest; the same people always object.
• There is no moment of decision, so songs drift into "we should learn that" purgatory.
• Nobody tracks what was rejected, so the same argument happens every 6 months.
• Songs get learned because one person is enthusiastic, then never played because nobody else wanted them.

The last one is the expensive one. A song that reaches the stage costs the band roughly 2–4 hours of collective rehearsal time plus homework. At 5 people, that is 10–20 person-hours. Learning 10 songs a year that never make a setlist is a wasted month.

The process

Four stages, each with a clear owner and a clear exit.

1. Propose. Anyone can propose. A proposal has a title, artist, a link to a reference recording, the proposed key (or "singer to decide"), and one sentence on why: "wedding peak song", "we have nothing from the 2010s", "background set filler". No sentence, no proposal. Proposals go into one list, not the chat.

2. Listen. Everyone listens to the reference before voting. This sounds obvious; it is skipped constantly. Give a window: proposals close on the 1st of the month, voting closes on the 8th.

3. Vote. Each member scores 1–5 on two questions: "Will this work for our audience?" and "Do I want to play this?" Private votes, then published results. Threshold: average of at least 3.5 on the audience question and at least 3.0 on the enjoyment question, with no more than 1 vote of 1. That last rule is the veto, and it deserves its own section.

4. Schedule. Winners go on a "to learn" list in priority order. The band learns 2–4 per month depending on rehearsal frequency; see learning songs fast. A winner not scheduled within 3 months goes back to the pool and needs re-proposing.

Songs that miss the threshold are recorded with their scores. They can be re-proposed after 6 months, not before.

Vetoes: who gets one and when

A veto is a vote of 1 that blocks the song regardless of the average. Bands handle this in one of three ways:

• Singer veto on range. If the lead singer cannot sing it in any reasonable key, it is dead. This is a technical veto and nobody should have to justify it beyond "not in my range".
• One-veto rule. Any member can veto any song, but each member gets only 2 vetoes per year. This stops the serial objector without removing the safety valve.
• Leader's veto on business grounds. The leader can block a song that damages the band's positioning (a 9-minute prog epic in a wedding band) but must say why in a sentence.

Whichever you pick, write it down. An unwritten veto is just whoever complains loudest, which is the system you are replacing.

Thresholds by band type

The 3.5 / 3.0 numbers above suit a function band choosing songs for paying clients. Adjust for your situation:

• Originals-plus-covers band: weigh enjoyment higher (3.5 / 3.5). You are choosing what to be, not just what sells.
• Agency-fed function band: weigh audience higher (4.0 / 2.5). The agency's brief matters more than the drummer's taste.
• Bands with 8+ members: use "at least 60% score 4 or above" instead of averages; big line-ups produce mushy averages.

Also set a cap on the pool. More than 20 open proposals means nobody listens to all of them. Close proposals for a month if it gets there.

Promoting a winner to the set

A learned song is not a repertoire song until it has been played live 3 times. Track that. Songs that get learned but not gigged are the leak in most bands' effort:

• The first live outing goes in the middle third of a set, never at a boundary; see setlist pacing.
• After 3 gigs, the song gets rated for real in the next rating round. If audience appeal comes in under 3, it goes to the archive and the band moves on. No sunk-cost defence.
• After 5 gigs at 4+, it joins the client-facing list and the request sheet.

Announce promotions. "Levitating is now in the main list" is a small win that keeps people proposing.

Killing dead songs

For every 3 songs added, retire 1. The rehearsal-room favourite nobody has gigged in a year, the former singer's showpiece, the song that scored 2.1 for audience twice. Retiring is the other half of a healthy list; a repertoire that only grows becomes a list of songs the band can no longer actually play. Do the retirements at the same meeting as the promotions, so it feels like maintenance and not a funeral.

What the leader does

Not choose the songs. The leader runs the process: keeps the pool tidy, closes votes on time, publishes results, puts winners on the rehearsal plan, and makes sure the 2 quiet members' proposals get heard. If the leader is also the biggest proposer, they should propose fewer songs and referee more. See what a band leader actually does.

Do this today

1. Write the rules on one page: proposal format, monthly dates, thresholds, the veto, the 3-gig promotion rule, the 3-for-1 retirement rule.
2. Open the first pool with a deadline 10 days away. Ask each member for exactly 2 proposals, with the one-sentence reason.
3. Put the 30-minute vote meeting in the calendar now.

Where expert.band helps

Song proposals in expert.band give the pool a home: members propose songs with a reference link, the band votes, and winners can be moved into the repertoire rather than retyped. Rating rounds then close the loop once the song has been gigged, so the proposal-to-promotion-to-retirement cycle lives in one place with the results attached to each song.