expert.band for cover bands

A cover band's product is its repertoire: 80 to 200 songs that everyone can play in the right key at the right tempo on a Friday night, refreshed often enough that the regulars do not hear the same set twice. Keeping that honest is the hardest job in the band, and it usually lives in one person's head and a spreadsheet that drifts.

This is how expert.band handles the cover-band workflow: the repertoire as a database, the process for adding and dropping songs, setlists per venue, and gigs.

The repertoire as a database

Every song in Repertoire has a title, an artist, a key, a tempo in BPM, a structure, a length and notes. Only the title is required; the rest is added when you have it. The list is searchable, sortable by any column and filterable by label.

The details that matter to a cover band:

• Key is per song and prints on the setlist, so the singer, the guitarist and the keys player never disagree on stage. Choosing keys is covered in choosing keys for your singers.
• Tempo prints next to it, for the drummer counting in.
• Structure is a list of sections (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, outro) you can reorder: your arrangement, not the record's. A shortened intro, a doubled last chorus, a cue for the ending.
• Attachments: chords or lyrics as text (printed with the setlist), links to the recording, or uploaded files such as PDF charts and backing tracks, opened from the phone on stage.
• Labels you define: Rock, 80s, Ballad, Opener, Closer, Needs work, New, Retired. A song can have several.

Import is a paste: one song per line, Title - Artist. A 150-song list is in the app in two minutes; keys and tempos can be filled in over the following weeks by whoever knows them. The repertoire can also be printed or exported as a plain list for a venue or agency that asks "what do you play?".

Adding songs: proposals, votes, veto

Cover bands die of two things: never adding songs, or adding every song the singer heard on the radio. Song proposals put a process in between. Anyone proposes a song with a link and a note on why it would work. Each member has one vote per proposal. When votes reach the band's threshold (a percentage set in band settings, half by default), the proposal is accepted and can be promoted. The leader and managers can veto, and the veto is visible with the name, so the discussion is in the open; vetoes can be lifted.

Promote creates the song in the repertoire with the link as its first attachment. Fill in the key and tempo once the band has learned it. The full process, including how to keep dead songs from accumulating, is in adding new songs: proposals, votes and vetoes.

Dropping songs: rating rounds

The other half of a healthy repertoire is cutting. Each member can rate any song at any time on three scales from one to five: audience appeal, how well the band plays it, how much they enjoy it. The repertoire shows the band average per scale.

To get everyone's opinion at once, run a rating round. Name it (Autumn 2026), pick the members, and each gets a personal link by email and, with a phone number, by SMS. The link shows one song at a time with three rows of stars, saves as they go, and can be finished later; no login. The round page shows who has finished. When you close it, the results list every song with its averages, the total score out of 15, the number of votes, and gold, silver and bronze for the top 15 of the table. Print the report and keep it; next season's round is read against it.

The reading is straightforward: high audience score and low performance score means rehearse it; low on all three means retire it; high enjoyment and low audience score is the song the band plays for itself, which is fine for one per set. See rating your repertoire and rating rounds explained.

Setlists per venue and per night

A cover band that plays the same club monthly needs variation; a band that plays a different town each weekend needs a reliable standard. Setlists handle both. Build one from the repertoire by dragging, insert breaks with labels (Break 20 min), add a note per item (segue into the next song, guest singer, a tuning change). The running time is calculated, so a 3 x 45 minute night is visibly three sets of 45.

Practical patterns:

• One setlist per venue you play regularly (Saturday at Rick's), duplicated each month and refreshed with 5 to 8 songs so the regulars hear something new.
• One standard three-set night, duplicated for one-off gigs and adjusted for the slot.
• A festival 45 that is nothing but openers and closers.

A song changed in the repertoire (new key, for example) updates every setlist it is in. Print gives a large-type list with key, tempo and notes, one page per set where possible, optionally with the chords or lyrics after each song, which is the version that goes on the floor at a gig with bad lighting. See printing setlists for the stage.

Gigs and availability

A cover band's calendar is a mix of confirmed bookings, enquiries and "the venue asked if we could do the 14th". Each gig has a date, times, location with a map link, a fee, notes and a status: request, confirmed, cancelled. From a request you send an availability request; each member gets a personal link by email and SMS and answers with one tap. The gig page shows who is in, who is out, who has not answered, with a reminder for the last group. Once you know enough, confirm.

Attach the setlist to the gig, mark the participants (not everyone plays every gig), build the packing checklist from a kit, and print one gig sheet with times, address, line-up, setlist and packing list. On the day, every member opens the same gig on their phone.

Rehearsals

Members paint their free hours on a weekly grid; the leader reads the heat map and schedules a rehearsal in the darkest cell, with a note listing the songs to prepare. Reminders go out automatically by email and SMS. When the rating round says three songs need work, the rehearsal note is where they go.

Members and deps

Members join free by invitation link and choose their instrument. Roles are simple: a leader, optional managers (everything except billing), and members who see everything, mark availability, rate, vote and can edit songs and setlists. A regular dep can be a member too; they see the charts and the setlists, answer availability requests, and cost nothing extra. A dep who is not a member does not see anything, so send them the printed setlist.

Limits worth knowing

• No audio playback or chart rendering inside the app; recordings and charts are attachments you open.
• No transposition of chord text; write the chart in the key you play.
• No setlist sharing with the audience or the venue beyond print and PDF.
• Ratings are per member and visible as band averages; there is no anonymous mode.

Cost

3.90 € or $ a month for one band after a 30-day trial, 30% less yearly, members free, 50 SMS a month included, six languages. Details on the pricing page.

Do this today

• Paste the full song list, then spend 20 minutes adding keys to the 30 songs you play most.
• Create labels for your set structure: Opener, Closer, Ballad, Needs work, Retired.
• Rebuild last Saturday's setlist and print it to see the stage version.
• Open a proposal for the song the singer keeps mentioning and let the band vote.
• Start a rating round with a 2-week deadline; close it and cut the bottom 5 songs.