Grassroots music venue bookers and operators playbook · 6 jobs

AI for grassroots music venue bookers and operators: 6 jobs to hand to AI this week (drafts only: PRS, licensing, contracts and money stay with you)

This page is for the booker, manager or owner of a small live-music room: the person who answers the inbox of holds and offers, chases set lists, sends the advance, promotes each show and settles up after the night. It is not for choosing acts or billing, and it is not advice on PRS, licensing or tax. AI here only lays out blank forms, trackers, checklists and short drafts. It never sees an act, agent, promoter or ticket-buyer name or contact, a song or set list, a fee, split or contract term, an invoice amount, a ticket or door figure, or any payment detail: the prompts use blanks and you fill them in afterwards, in your own document. What PPL PRS or PRS for Music require, what an invoice should say, whether a date is held or agreed, and what a settlement should be are decided or checked by a named person (the licence holder, the booker, the owner or budget holder, your accountant, PPL PRS itself), and nothing you send to an act, agent, promoter or PPL PRS needs to mention how it was drafted. UK rules and guidance are labelled UK.

Never used ChatGPT or another AI tool? Start with job 1 below. Each job tells you which tool to open, the exact words to paste, and what to check before you send. New to all this? Read how to use AI at work, for beginners.

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Job 1 of 6ChatGPTClaude

Set up a PRS event-record kit: a pre-show form for acts and promoters and a post-show tracker, using only the fields PPL PRS gives you

A venue that books shows week after week has the same job each time: get a set list from every act and the right event information to PPL PRS. The booker of a 600-capacity room told NME in April 2026 that his main gripe was not having the staff or the infrastructure to trace which performing artists are PRS-registered or not. PRS’s own statement, quoted in the same article, is that live royalties depend on a chain that includes “the provision of accurate event data, and the submission of setlists”. A form that goes to every act with the advance, and a tracker that shows which shows have a record and which do not, keeps the gaps visible while the night is still fresh. The AI lays out the blank form and tracker from a field list that you get from PPL PRS. It never sees an act, a song or a writer, it never says what PRS requires or whether a record is needed for a show, and the licence holder, or the named person who deals with PPL PRS, decides what is sent and sends it.

Time: About 90 minutes once, then 10 minutes per showTool cost: you can start with a free AI tool

An AI chat tool you already use

Steps

  1. Ask PPL PRS, in writing, which tariff applies to your shows and what event information and set list format it needs from you after each one (its help page gives a setlist email address, and its live events page gives a live music team contact). Paste its reply into your own document as your field list. Do not guess the fields, and do not ask an AI tool what PRS requires.
  2. Name the person who deals with PPL PRS (the licence holder or manager) and the person who chases acts for set lists. For each kind of night you run (a booked tour, a local bill, a promoter-led night, a club night), write down who must give you the set list and by when. Where a promoter hires the room, agree in writing with the promoter who collects it.
  3. Run the prompt below with its brackets left as they are. Do not type an act, song, writer or promoter detail into the AI tool. You get back a blank pre-show form and an empty tracker.
  4. Build both in your own documents. Send the form with the advance for each show, keep returned forms in your own records (not the AI tool), and tick the tracker when each set list arrives.
  5. After each show, the named person checks that the record is complete and signed, adds it to the tracker and sends it to PPL PRS by the route PPL PRS gave you. Put any deadline PPL PRS gave you in your diary as a date, not as a guess.
  6. Once a month, list the shows with no record and ask PPL PRS or your adviser what to do about them. Do not fill gaps from memory.

The exact prompt

Copy, paste, then fill in the [brackets]
Write two things for a UK live music venue manager who must collect event information for PPL PRS.
1. A one-page pre-show form for [ACT AND PROMOTER] to complete, headed [VENUE NAME] and [DATE], with these fields exactly as PPL PRS gave them to us: [FIELD LIST COPIED FROM PPL PRS’S OWN REPLY]. Add a set list table with columns in this order: [COLUMNS REQUIRED BY PPL PRS], eight empty rows, a line for the name and signature of the person completing it, and a line saying the form goes back to [ROLE AT THE VENUE]. Do not add, rename or suggest any field that is not in the list.
2. A blank tracker table with columns: show date, event name, venue-run or promoter-run, form sent (date), form received (date), record complete (yes, no or query), sent to PPL PRS (date), sent by (initials), query with PPL PRS (yes or no), notes. Leave twelve empty rows. Do not fill in anything.
Do not say what PRS requires, what a set list must contain, how a licence is calculated or whether a record is needed for any show.
RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my own venue wording, headings and dates that I have typed in. I will not give you, and you must not ask for, any artist, agent, manager, promoter, ticket-buyer or staff name, email address, phone number or address, any bank or payment detail, any fee, split, deposit or contract term, any song title, writer or set list, any ticket-sale, door or invoice figure, or any licence number. Use the blanks in square brackets exactly as I give them. Do not invent fees, dates, figures, availability, terms, or facts about any act or any licence, and do not say what is standard, usual, owed or legal. Do not give legal, licensing, PRS, tax or accounting advice, and do not do any arithmetic: leave calculation cells empty. Where something is missing write [FOR THE VENUE TO COMPLETE]. Everything you write is a draft that a named person will check before anything is sent.

✓ Check before you send

  • The field list on the form is copied word for word from PPL PRS’s own reply, and the AI tool added or renamed no field.
  • No act, song, writer, promoter or ticket detail was typed into the AI tool: forms were completed by the acts and are kept in your own records.
  • A named person at the venue checks each returned form is complete and signed before it is sent, and sends it by the route PPL PRS gave you.
  • Any deadline in your diary came from PPL PRS’s own documents or reply, not from this page.
  • The form to the act says nothing about fees, the licence or what PRS pays, and nothing in it mentions how it was drafted.

UK notes extra

Last reviewed Oct 2026. Free tools change. If a screen looks different, the steps still apply.Back to top ↑

Open this job on its own page →

Job 2 of 6ChatGPTClaude

Plan the marketing for each show and draft the copy, using only facts you have confirmed

The booker of The Cluny in Newcastle told a booking agency’s series in October 2026 that audiences buy tickets much later than they used to, and that “you need a proper advertising plan for every show”. For a room that puts on shows week after week, that is a plan and a set of posts for each one. A countdown table from the announcement back from the show date, and copy variants for the listing, social posts, poster and mailing list that use only the facts you have confirmed, means each show starts from a template instead of a blank page. The AI works from placeholders only. It never sees an act name before you have confirmed the show or announced it, and it never adds a claim such as “sold out” or “last tickets”. You and the act’s agent decide the billing, the wording about the act and which claims are true, and a named person checks the final copy against your ticketing page.

Time: About an hour once, then 20 minutes per showTool cost: you can start with a free AI tool

An AI chat tool you already use

Steps

  1. In your own sheet, list each show with these columns: act confirmed in writing (yes or no, and the date); announcement date and billing wording agreed with the agent (yes or no); ticket price and on-sale date; doors; age limit; ticket link; support acts confirmed. Only a show with yes in the first two columns goes into a plan.
  2. Decide the plan yourself: the announcement date, the on-sale date, the reminder dates, the week-of-show posts and the day-of post, which channels each goes on, and who approves each one.
  3. Run the prompt below with the show date and on-sale date and the acts left as [ACT] and [SUPPORT]. Do not type an act name or a price into the AI tool. You get a countdown table and four copy variants.
  4. In your own document, replace each placeholder with the confirmed fact. Check names and spelling against what the agent supplied, price, doors, age limit and link against your ticketing page, and delete any claim you cannot prove from your own records.
  5. Schedule the posts in your own channels. After the show, note in the sheet which posts you actually made, so the next plan starts from a real record.

The exact prompt

Copy, paste, then fill in the [brackets]
Write the following for a UK live music venue that is promoting a show on [SHOW DATE] with tickets on sale from [ON-SALE DATE].
1. A countdown table with columns: days before the show, date, channel (social, listing sites, mailing list, poster), what goes out, who approves, done. Add rows from the announcement to the day of the show, using placeholders only, such as [ACT] and [SUPPORT].
2. Four copy variants for the show, using only these placeholders: [ACT], [SUPPORT], [VENUE], [SHOW DATE], [DOORS], [AGE LIMIT], [TICKET PRICE], [TICKET LINK], [FACTS ABOUT THE ACT SUPPLIED BY THE AGENT]. Write a listing of under 60 words; two social posts of under 40 words each (one announcement, one reminder); poster text with a headline and three lines; and a mailing-list email of under 120 words with a subject line.
Do not describe the act or the music. Do not use “sold out”, “last tickets”, “only a few left” or any claim about sales, awards, reviews or “first time”. Where a claim might be wanted write [CLAIM FOR THE VENUE TO CHECK OR LEAVE OUT]. Do not suggest a billing order or the size of any name.
RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my own venue wording, headings and dates that I have typed in. I will not give you, and you must not ask for, any artist, agent, manager, promoter, ticket-buyer or staff name, email address, phone number or address, any bank or payment detail, any fee, split, deposit or contract term, any song title, writer or set list, any ticket-sale, door or invoice figure, or any licence number. Use the blanks in square brackets exactly as I give them. Do not invent fees, dates, figures, availability, terms, or facts about any act or any licence, and do not say what is standard, usual, owed or legal. Do not give legal, licensing, PRS, tax or accounting advice, and do not do any arithmetic: leave calculation cells empty. Where something is missing write [FOR THE VENUE TO COMPLETE]. Everything you write is a draft that a named person will check before anything is sent.

✓ Check before you send

  • Every act named in the final copy is confirmed in writing and cleared for announcement by the agent; no act name was typed into the AI tool before it was public.
  • The billing order and the wording about each act match what was agreed or what the agent supplied.
  • Price, doors, age limit, date and ticket link match your ticketing page on the day each post goes out.
  • Any claim such as sold out, last tickets or first time was checked by you against your own records, or left out.
  • A named person approved each post, and you checked who may receive the mailing-list email and how people opt out before it was sent.

UK notes extra

Last reviewed Oct 2026. Free tools change. If a screen looks different, the steps still apply.Back to top ↑

Open this job on its own page →

Job 3 of 6ChatGPTClaude

Build a show-advance sheet for touring acts from your own standing venue facts

Touring acts and their tour managers ask the same questions before every show: when can the act load in, when is soundcheck, when is the curfew, where can the van park, what is on the rider, and who is the contact on the night. The production manager and primary booker at The Cluny says he has worked in a venue “from production and running the room on the night to contracts, settlements and booking”. A one-page advance sheet built from your standing facts, and sent the same way each time, answers the routine questions before they are asked, and shows early what an act has not told you. It also carries one plain, optional question about whether the act or crew need anything arranged. The AI lays out the blank sheet and the covering email only. Rider caps and hospitality are the booker’s call, and any curfew you write is copied from your own premises licence conditions or notice and checked by the licence holder, not taken from AI.

Time: About 90 minutes once, then 10 minutes per showTool cost: you can start with a free AI tool

An AI chat tool you already use

Steps

  1. In your own document, write the standing facts: load-in access and times, parking, soundcheck arrangements, house backline, doors time, stage times, merchandise arrangements, green room, settlement time and who does it, and the contact on the night. Write the curfew exactly as it appears in the conditions of your premises licence or any notice, and TBC beside anything not decided.
  2. Choose the one person who reads access answers (a role and a name in your own notes) and where answers are kept: your own records, not a shared inbox and not the AI tool. Write down what your venue can really provide for access, copied from your own access information.
  3. Run the prompt below with its brackets left as they are. Do not type an act, rider or access detail into the AI tool. You get an advance sheet template, a covering email and an empty per-show checklist.
  4. In your own document, fill the brackets from step 1. Ask the licence holder to check the curfew line against the licence, ask whoever agrees hospitality to check that line against the deal sheet for the show, and read the optional access question once more to check it asks nothing about any specific condition.
  5. Send the sheet with the show confirmation, attach your PRS set list form (see the event-record job above), and tick the checklist as answers arrive: done, chase or TBC. Pass any access answer only to the named person; record only “answer received: yes or no”.

The exact prompt

Copy, paste, then fill in the [brackets]
Write two things for a UK live music venue booker.
1. A one-page advance sheet template for [VENUE] with these headings in this order, each followed by the bracket shown: Load-in [LOAD-IN ACCESS AND TIMES]; Parking [PARKING]; Soundcheck [SOUNDCHECK ARRANGEMENT]; Backline and house kit [BACKLINE DETAILS]; Doors [DOORS TIME]; Stage times [STAGE TIMES]; Curfew [CURFEW COPIED FROM OUR PREMISES LICENCE CONDITIONS, CHECKED BY THE LICENCE HOLDER]; Merchandise [MERCH ARRANGEMENT]; Hospitality [AS AGREED FOR THIS SHOW, OR TO BE CONFIRMED]; Settlement [SETTLEMENT TIME AND WHO]; PRS set list form [FORM ATTACHED BY THE VENUE]; Contact on the night [ROLE AND PHONE: FOR THE VENUE TO COMPLETE]. Near the end add one plain, optional question asking whether there is anything the act or their team would like the venue to know or arrange to make their visit easier, with answers going to [NAMED PERSON, ROLE] only. Do not mention, suggest or ask about any specific condition, disability or health matter.
2. A covering email of under 150 words from [BOOKER NAME] at [VENUE] to [TOUR MANAGER OR ACT CONTACT] for [ACT] on [SHOW DATE], saying the advance sheet is attached and asking for a reply by [ADVANCE DEADLINE] with: arrival time, number of people travelling, technical needs or a link to their rider, and a contact for the day. Then a per-show checklist table with columns: item, sent (date), answer received (date), confirmed (yes, no or TBC), notes.
Do not mention fees, splits or contract terms. Do not add any fact, promise or rider cap.
RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my own venue wording, headings and dates that I have typed in. I will not give you, and you must not ask for, any artist, agent, manager, promoter, ticket-buyer or staff name, email address, phone number or address, any bank or payment detail, any fee, split, deposit or contract term, any song title, writer or set list, any ticket-sale, door or invoice figure, or any licence number. Use the blanks in square brackets exactly as I give them. Do not invent fees, dates, figures, availability, terms, or facts about any act or any licence, and do not say what is standard, usual, owed or legal. Do not give legal, licensing, PRS, tax or accounting advice, and do not do any arithmetic: leave calculation cells empty. Where something is missing write [FOR THE VENUE TO COMPLETE]. Everything you write is a draft that a named person will check before anything is sent.

✓ Check before you send

  • No act, rider or access detail was typed into the AI tool: every bracket was filled in your own document.
  • The curfew line is copied from the conditions on your premises licence or notice, and the licence holder has checked it.
  • The hospitality line is exactly what was agreed for the show in your deal sheet; anything not agreed says TBC.
  • The access question is optional, appears once, and names the one person who reads the answers; answers are kept in your own records.
  • The sheet and email restate no fee, split or contract term, promise no access feature the venue does not have, and say nothing about how they were drafted.

UK notes extra

Last reviewed Oct 2026. Free tools change. If a screen looks different, the steps still apply.Back to top ↑

Open this job on its own page →

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Questions grassroots music venue bookers and operators ask

Is it safe to put artist, promoter or ticket-buyer details into an AI tool?

Don’t. Names, emails, phone numbers, bank details, fees, splits, door figures, set lists, song titles and any access or health detail stay in your own records. The prompts on this page use blanks such as [ACT], [FEE] and [SHOW DATE], and you fill them in afterwards in your own document. In the UK, details about a person’s access needs can count as health information, which the ICO lists as special category data, so ask for them only when needed and keep them with one named person.

Can AI tell me what PPL PRS or PRS for Music require, or whether my invoice is right?

No. What applies to your shows, which tariff is used and what an invoice should say come from PPL PRS and its published tariffs, and the licence holder and your accountant decide how to respond. The PRS jobs here only lay out a blank form, a tracker, a comparison sheet and a list of neutral questions that you fill in and check yourself. Nothing on this page says a bill is right, wrong or fair.

Can AI agree a hold or an offer, or work out a settlement for me?

No. The booker or owner decides every hold, offer and confirmation, and whoever signs for the venue checks anything that could be read as an agreement. The reply templates use brackets for every date and figure and say nothing is agreed until you say so. For the settlement, the AI only lays out the sheet: you enter the figures, do the sums in a spreadsheet and have a second person check them before anything is sent.

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Privacy tip: don't paste customers' full names, addresses or other personal details into AI tools unless you need to and you've checked the tool's privacy settings.