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AI, Automation & The Live Music Industry
From the outside, live music looks like magic. But for those behind the scenes, venue managers, engineers, and artists, gig planning is often a logistical headache. In grassroots music, where resources are tight and staff are stretched thin, the pressure is mounting. Rising costs, limited time, and shrinking teams have made efficient event planning not just helpful, but essential.
Technology is now stepping into the spotlight, not to replace the people that make music culture thrive, but to support them. Here's how AI and automation are quietly transforming the way we plan and run live music events, and why now is the time for grassroots venues and artists to take notice.
There’s no one way to plan an event at the grassroots level. Every venue has their own system, often developed over years. What most have in common is a reliance on spreadsheets, disconnected calendars, emails, and messaging apps to manage everything from bookings to tech specs.
In many cases, one person holds all the information, becoming the central hub for bookings, comms, and logistics. That might seem efficient, until they’re unavailable, burnt out, or struggling to keep up. If a sound tech doesn’t have the latest rider, or the artist’s stage plot is buried in a message thread, things start to unravel fast.
This over-reliance on individuals, combined with fragmented information, is the perfect recipe for inefficiency, and stress.
In 2025, grassroots venues are under immense pressure. Operational costs are rising. Staff numbers are down. Marketing expectations are higher than ever. And almost every venue we speak to says the same thing: “We just don’t have the time.”
When you're constantly firefighting, booking artists, promoting shows, managing staff, there's little room left to work on the venue, rather than just in it. That’s where automation can make a real difference.
Let’s be clear: not all automation is helpful. With so many tools available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
But used strategically, automation can unlock huge value, especially in repetitive admin tasks. Things like sending schedules, gathering artist info, sharing tech specs with sound techs… all of these can be done faster, and more reliably, with the right systems in place.
One festival we worked on had over 60 artists. The task of collecting and interpreting tech riders, then booking the necessary equipment, would previously take a full 36-hour work week. Using Stage Portal, we cut that task down to 6 seconds. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s the power of smart automation.
The result? Time back for the things that matter: artist care, production quality, and audience experience.
That’s our mantra. Tech should never replace the creativity that drives music culture. Instead, it should remove the admin burden, so venues and artists can focus on delivering great shows.
The first step is getting organised. Data needs to be accessible, not hidden in email inboxes, personal cloud drives, or scraps of paper. Once your info is in order, you can begin to automate high-effort, low-value tasks. That’s where the real time savings happen.
The exciting part? Automation improves the experience of live music, not just the planning.
When sound techs receive up-to-date info in advance, problems are solved before artists even arrive. Soundchecks become about refining the mix, not figuring out what’s missing. Bands walk on stage relaxed and ready. Crews aren’t chasing last-minute details. Everyone wins—and the audience feels the difference.
That’s the mission behind Stage Portal: to give people more time and energy to focus on what really matters, the performance.
A lot of people worry that tech tools will “take over” the creative parts of music. In reality, the opposite is true.
Tech doesn’t replace creativity, it makes space for it. By automating the admin, creatives have more time to write, rehearse, promote, and perform. That’s the future we believe in.
At Stage Portal, we’re building that future. Our roadmap is shaped by feedback from artists, venues, and managers. We’re constantly improving the tools and adding new features to meet the real-world demands of the industry.
This isn’t about replacing humans—it’s about helping the humans in this industry thrive.
If you’re new to this, it can feel daunting. But you don’t have to change everything overnight.
Heres some of our top tips.
Make sure everything is accessible.
Maybe that’s tech rider collection, schedule sharing, or event reminders.
Don't run before you can walk, start slow and build up.
With Stage Portal, we’ve built an onboarding process that makes it easy to import your data and get up and running in minutes. Once you’re in, the benefits are immediate.
The live music world is built on passion. But passion alone isn’t enough to keep grassroots music thriving in 2025. We need tools that work for us, not against us.
AI and automation won’t replace the magic of live shows. But they will give us the time and clarity to focus on making that magic happen.
🎸 Ready to streamline your next show? Start your free 30-day trial of Stage Portal today.
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