Questions?
Good.

Small Venue Music is a two-sided booking platform connecting small venues — bars, breweries, and restaurants — with live performers. Venues post their open entertainment slots; performers browse and submit interest; venues send formal booking offers; performers confirm. The whole process happens in one place.

Launching in Richmond, VA — Late Summer 2026. Join the waitlist to be notified as soon as we go live.

Small Venue Music is launching in Richmond, VA. If you're outside Richmond, you can vote for your city on our Early Access page and we'll let you know when we're heading your way.

No. The platform records the agreed compensation between venue and performer, but payment is handled directly between the two parties. Small Venue Music does not hold, transfer, or take a cut of any payment.

It's a mobile website — there's nothing to download. You open the Small Venue Music app in any phone browser, and if you want, you can add it to your home screen, where it opens full-screen and behaves like a native app (that's the “Progressive Web App” part). No App Store or Google Play download required. (The site you're on now is our marketing site; the app is the separate product where venues and performers actually book shows.)

Performers are free — no cost to join, build a profile, or receive offers. For venues, it's $249/year ($99 your first year), with unlimited bookings — after a 5-booking or 60-day free trial. No percentage fees or hidden cuts.

Your first 5 bookings — or first 60 days, whichever comes first — are free. No credit card required to start. After the trial, it's $249/year — $99 your first year — with unlimited bookings, no show cap.

Performers aren't manually screened before joining. Quality is visible through three public metrics: Show Reliability (the percentage of booked shows completed), Approval Rating (% of venues that rated their experience positively), and Audience Draw (venue-reported turnout data, broken down by venue size). New performers show a 'New' badge until they have 3+ completed shows.

Cancellations happen. If one lands within 7 days of the show, it counts as a late cancellation and is reflected in that performer's public Show Reliability score. If both parties agree the show shouldn't go forward, neither side's score is affected. After a cancellation is complete, you're put right back in — browse matched acts and send a new offer for the same slot, just like when you first posted it.

No. The platform records the agreed compensation terms, but payment is handled directly between you and the performer. Small Venue Music does not process or hold payments.

Cover bands and working musicians are the primary acts at launch. As the platform grows, the directory will expand. You can note specific entertainment preferences when posting a slot.

Post a new open slot and send that performer a direct booking offer. Your full booking history is saved, making it easy to find performers you've worked with before.

Yes. The Small Venue Music app is a PWA designed to work fully on mobile — browse performers, review profiles, and send booking offers right from your phone, with or without adding it to your home screen.

Create your profile, browse open slots posted by venues, and submit interest in the ones you want. The venue reviews your profile and ratings and sends a booking offer if they want to book you.

Yes. No cost to join, create a profile, browse open slots, or receive booking offers at launch.

Cover bands, tribute acts, solo artists, and original artists who play bars and breweries. If you play the kind of show where people order another round and stay for the set, you belong here.

You and the venue agree on compensation terms. The platform records the agreement — Flat Fee, Door Split / Percentage, Guarantee vs. Percentage, Pass the Hat / Tips Only, or another custom arrangement the venue and performer agree to. Payment is made directly between you and the venue.

Once a booking is confirmed by both sides, the show is automatically added to your connected Google Calendar. Connect your calendar in profile settings. We only add the shows we book for you — we don't read or change anything else on your calendar. Deleting the event in Google Calendar doesn't cancel the booking; to cancel, use the cancellation flow in the app.

Cancellations happen. If a venue cancels within 7 days of the show, it's reflected in their public Show Reliability score — visible to all performers. If both parties agree the show shouldn't go forward, neither side's score is affected. After a cancellation is complete, the venue's slot re-opens and you can submit interest again just like when you first saw it.

It's the percentage of a performer's or venue's booked shows they complete — that is, shows not cancelled within 7 days of showtime. Both performers and venues have one, so the accountability cuts both ways. Agreed cancellations don't count against either side. New users show a 'New' badge until they have at least 3 qualifying shows.

Approval is the percentage of venues that rated their experience with you positively after a confirmed show. It's a simple thumbs-up signal — separate from star ratings — that helps venues spot performers who are easy to work with.

After every show, the venue reports audience turnout — Below Expectations, As Expected, or Packed. Over time, this builds a public Audience Draw profile on your page, broken down by venue size (under 100 capacity, 100–300, 300+). It shows future venues how well you fill rooms at places similar to theirs. Appears once you have 3+ turnout ratings at a given venue size.

That's fine. The platform is about the venue type you play, not your setlist. If you perform at bars, breweries, and restaurants, you're a fit.