Looking for a Back On Stage alternative?
What Back On Stage does well, from its own website; what that site does not mention; and what Event Band Manager does instead — for bands where the fee is split between the players. Checked against Back On Stage’s website on 23 September 2026.
What Back On Stage does well
An all-in-one system for running a band as a business: client portal, contracts, invoicing, automatic booking of musicians and paying the team.
- CRM, lead forms and automatic follow-up emails
- Contracts with e-signature, invoices and a client portal
- Auto-Book: gig offers sent to musicians in order until every role is filled
- Payouts and auto-pay to musicians through PayPal
- Set lists and a music library with unlimited storage
- Income and expense tracking per booking
What it does that Event Band Manager does not
- Gig offers sent to musicians automatically by email or text
- Musicians paid through PayPal payouts, with an invoice made for each payout
- Lead forms with automatic follow-up email sequences
- Contracts with e-signature and client questionnaires
- Sheet music handed to each musician by role
- Several band brands under one subscription on the Agency plan
Price, as published on 23 September 2026: Starter $29, Pro $49, Agency $79 a month billed monthly (or $19, $40 and $63 a month billed annually); USD, or CAD for Canadian customers; 30-day free trial. Described as a web app with nothing to download, saved to the phone’s home screen (their how-to, dated 18 July 2020).
What its site does not mention
Five things matter most to the people who play in a function band: their travel, their share, deps, expenses, and not paying to take part. Here is what we could not find on Back On Stage’s website. Not mentioned is not the same as not there — if one of these matters to you, ask them.
- Each player’s travel from their own postcode, taken off the top — not mentioned.
- An equal split to the penny, with a statement for each member — what its site does say: pays each musician by PayPal payout.
- Deps: travel from where the dep lives, and the member settles with the dep — what its site does say: substitutes get the song materials; musicians paid by payout.
What Event Band Manager does instead
Travel comes off the top, per player. Each person’s round-trip driving distance is worked out from their own postcode to the venue, at the mileage rate the band sets, and paid back to them before anything is divided. On Band Pro the journey builder counts stops, when somebody picks two others up.
What is left splits equally, to the penny. The odd pennies are handed out rather than rounded away, and at the end of the month each person gets a statement of their own — every gig, the share, the travel back and the expenses — as a page and a PDF. A correction supersedes the old version instead of quietly rewriting it.
Deps are people, with their own journey. When a dep covers, the travel is worked out from where the dep lives, the band pays its own member, and the member settles with the dep. Who owes whom is on the statement, not in somebody’s memory.
Expenses ride with the gig. Photograph the receipt on the night and file it against the gig; whoever looks after the band’s money approves it, and it lands on the right statement.
Members are free. Every member and every dep has an account of their own at no cost, with one diary for every band they play in.
What it costs: Free for every member and dep, and for a band running itself. Band Pro £12 a month per band; Manager £15 a month per band you manage (£12 from the third); Bookings £9 a month per person.
Who should stay with Back On Stage
If you are a bandleader booking a roster of hired musicians, paying each one a fee and chasing clients through a sales pipeline, Back On Stage is built around that.
To put it plainly: a band that wants setlists, charts or rehearsal tools first, and whose money is simple, may be better where it is. Event Band Manager is for the band where the arithmetic is the argument — different drives, deps most weekends, and a statement each member can check.
How to move
Create an account and the band, and add the people in it with their postcodes. Put your next gig in with its fee and venue, and the split and everybody’s travel are worked out straight away. If your gigs already live in a shared sheet — the one your agency keeps, for example — Band Pro connects it and brings the gigs in, synced daily, with a conflict shown rather than a silent overwrite.
Then invite the band. Members join free, by a link, and see their own gigs, travel and statement from the first gig. Want to see the arithmetic before any of that? The pay split calculator does the same sum with no account.
Questions
Is Event Band Manager connected to Back On Stage?
No. Event Band Manager is a separate product and is not affiliated with Back On Stage. This page is our own comparison, made from Back On Stage’s website as it read on 23 September 2026.
Is Event Band Manager free?
Every member and every dep uses it free, and a band running itself can stay on Free for good — the pay split, travel, expenses, statements and deps are all in it. Band Pro is £12 a month per band and Manager £15 a month per band you manage; every new band gets a month of Band Pro to try, with no card to start.
Is there an iPhone app?
Not in the App Store. Event Band Manager installs as an app on an iPhone or an Android phone straight from the browser, opens full screen, and keeps your gig list for a venue with no signal. A Google Play listing is on its way.
Put your next gig in and see the split
Members are free. Every new band gets a month of Band Pro, and it drops to Free on its own afterwards.
Back On Stage is a trademark of its owner; this page is Event Band Manager’s own comparison, checked on 23 September 2026.