expert.band pricing explained

Software pricing pages are written to hide the number. This one is not: expert.band costs 3.90 € or $ a month for one band, and this article explains everything around that number so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Who pays, what the extra band price means, how the yearly plan works, what the SMS allowance covers, what happens when you stop paying, and a few worked examples.

One plan, everything included

There is one plan. It includes every feature: repertoire, setlists, gigs with availability requests, the rehearsal planner with reminders, quotes with client links, gear and packing, song proposals, rating rounds, file storage for charts and recordings, email notifications, six languages, and unlimited members, songs, setlists and gigs. There is no "pro" tier with the useful bits behind it.

Who is billed

The band leader's account. A band has exactly one leader, and that account carries the subscription for every band it owns. Members and managers pay nothing, however many there are and however many bands they are in. A musician who is a member in five bands and leads none has a free account for as long as they like.

If leadership changes hands (the band is transferred to another member in band settings), billing for that band moves to the new leader's account from the next invoice.

The numbers

	Monthly	Yearly
First band	3.90 € or $	32.76 € or $ (2.73 a month, 30% less)
Each additional band you own	2.00 € or $	30% less on yearly billing

Prices are the same figure in euro and US dollar; you choose the currency on the billing page. Prices include VAT where applicable, so the number you see is the number you pay.

Yearly billing can be chosen at checkout, and a monthly subscriber can switch to yearly at any time from the billing page: the unused part of the current month is credited and the year starts that day.

Additional bands

You can own as many bands as you like on one account. The first is included in the plan; each further band is added to the subscription automatically when you create it (prorated on the next invoice) and removed when you delete it. So a leader with a wedding band and an acoustic trio pays 3.90 + 2.00 = 5.90 a month. An agency owning five acts pays 3.90 + 4 x 2.00 = 11.90.

Being a member or a manager of other bands is free. A leader of one band who plays in three others pays for one.

The 30-day trial

Every new account starts with 30 days free. Everything works during the trial, including SMS. No card is needed to start; a banner shows the days left. When the trial ends without a subscription, the bands you own become read-only: nobody can add or change anything, nothing is deleted, and everything can still be read and printed. Subscribe later and everything is back.

The trial is per account, not per band, so creating a second band during the trial does not restart it.

The SMS allowance

Each paying account gets 50 SMS a month, shared across all the bands it owns. Three things use SMS, each only to members with a phone number:

• availability requests for gigs,
• rehearsal reminders,
• rating-round invitations.

Email for the same things is unlimited and always sent. When the allowance is used up, the app tells you at the moment of sending and falls back to email; nothing is dropped silently. The counter resets on the first of the month and is shown on the billing page.

Is 50 enough? A 6-piece band that sends 3 availability requests and holds 4 rehearsals a month by SMS uses 42. A 10-piece rehearsing weekly will exceed it and should send requests by email only, or accept that late-month reminders go by email. There is no option to buy more SMS at the moment.

Cancelling

Cancel from the billing page at any time. Access continues until the end of the period you have paid for; after that, the bands become read-only, as after the trial. No refunds for partial months or years. Subscribe again whenever you want and everything is as you left it.

If a payment fails, the app shows a banner asking you to update the payment method to keep write access; ignore it long enough and the account moves to read-only until the payment goes through.

Payments are handled by Stripe. expert.band stores a customer reference and the subscription status, not your card.

Deleting

Deleting a band removes its songs, gigs, quotes and everything else; members keep their accounts. Deleting your account removes your memberships, ratings, votes and availability, and every band you own with all their data. You cannot delete an account with an active subscription: cancel first, then delete. A deleted account and its bands are removed within 30 days; backups are kept for 90 days. More in your data at expert.band.

Worked examples

A 5-piece wedding band, one leader. 3.90 a month, or 32.76 a year. Four members free. Compared with a typical fee of 1,500 to 3,000 EUR per wedding, the yearly cost is under 2% of one gig.

A bandleader with two projects. A function band and a jazz trio as separate bands: 5.90 a month. If the trio is really a subset of the same people with the same repertoire, one band with a "Trio" label on the songs and a trio setlist is cheaper and simpler.

A freelance manager. Invited as manager in four independent bands: 0. Each band's leader pays 3.90.

An agency with house acts. Owns four bands: 9.90 a month, or 30% less yearly. See expert.band for managers and agencies.

A band that stops for the winter. Cancel in November; the bands are read-only and printable all winter; subscribe again in March.

Is it worth it?

An honest answer depends on the band. If you play once a month with a fixed repertoire and everyone answers the chat within an hour, a spreadsheet is fine; see expert.band vs Google Sheets. If the leader spends an hour a week asking, reminding and re-sending, and one missed rehearsal or one forgotten cable costs more than a year of the subscription, the arithmetic is not close.

The way to find out is the trial: 30 days, everything on, no card. Start here, or read the details on the pricing page and in account and billing.

Do this today

• Decide who the leader account should be: the person who will pay and administer, not necessarily the musical leader.
• Count the bands you would actually own as separate workspaces.
• Estimate your monthly SMS: members with phones x (requests + rehearsals).
• Start the trial and set a reminder for day 25 to decide.