AmptUp, the all-in-one platform known for cutting the event booking process down from three weeks to three minutes, introduces its new Payouts feature–carrying venues and talent through the entire booking process, from sending the initial contract and booking proposal to payment at the end of the gig.

Very few software tools existed to manage booking for independent venues before AmptUp. This left venue owners to resort to inefficient email threads, spreadsheets, and separate calendars to track everything. 

With just a few clicks, AmptUp replaces the old email chains with a centralized hub for all contracts, marketing materials, and event information–ensuring that artists get paid and venue owners have more time to focus on curating lineups and running their businesses. With AmptUp, venues can track the status of a booking in real-time, receive artist assets at the time of booking, and easily calculate payouts. Meanwhile, musicians have easy access to every detail to ensure they arrive on time and with all the right equipment–booking confirmations, tech setup information, house rules, and even the marketing and hospitality offers from the venue.

The introduction of the Payouts calculator within the AmptUp platform further simplifies and streamlines paperwork for artists and venues. Within the AmptUp app, venues can specify terms of the most common deals (flat fee, ticket split, percentage of bar revenue, etc.) while calculating it for an error-free experience that provides transparency for the musician–showing itemized costs and artist pay deductions. The new preferred payment option also makes settling up at the end of the night easier.

“We've done heavy research into the artist experience, and a lot of artists have a story about managing payouts at 2 a.m. or while racing to catch a plane, only to find out that they aren't getting paid what they expected,” says Holly Hagerman, Co-Founder and CEO of AmptUp. “This is almost always due to an unclear contract or paperwork getting lost in the shuffle. Independent venues and artists rely on each other and AmptUp’s new Payouts feature helps maintain these symbiotic relationships by ensuring that everyone is clear on the terms of the deal with a total sell-out potential number shown in writing.” 

When a booker sends a booking offer, the musician receives a text or email with all of the booking and compensation details. After reviewing the offer, the musician can choose to accept it. From there, they are prompted to upload their information, payment details, photos for marketing, and any required paperwork like W9s. All data uploaded by both the venue and the talent flows into the booking offer – creating a single source of truth for all parties to refer back to at any time.

Recently launching in Portland, AmptUp partnered with several local independent venues before spreading to other live music hubs. Placing great emphasis on empowering the diverse voices of independent artists nationwide, AmptUp now has partners from coast to coast and looks forward to fostering lasting partnerships with more venues this year. 

About AmptUp
AmptUp believes in the power of independent live music. We are dedicated to making independent live music stronger, easier, and more sustainable – for venues, for musicians, and for fans. We aim to do this by making the most time-consuming and costly part for every live music venue - booking, advancing, producing, and settling up a show - more transparent, simple, fast, and equitable for both sides. Join AmptUp’s community of partnered venues spanning from coast to coast at amptup.com

Between live music conglomerates buying up venues and the residual financial and cultural impacts of the pandemic, independent venue owners face more pressure than ever to keep their businesses afloat. Many beloved long-standing clubs country-wide are calling on new tech like AmptUp’s booking platform to keep their doors open and tradition alive.

One such venue is The Boom Boom Room, a storied institution in the club scene of San Francisco. Blues royalty John Lee Hooker opened the iconic live music spot in 1997, naming it after his 1962 hit that crossed over to the pop charts. The building, which stands on the corner of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, has long stood as the spiritual epicenter of jazz and blues–once home to Jack’s, a funky organ bar and located just blocks from where a young Etta James was discovered at the Primalon Ballroom.

Even with the veteran club’s rich history and weekly lineups featuring top musicians, The Boom Boom Room faces the same hurdles most independent venues do. The venue, which has seen legends like BB King and James Brown take its stage, is struggling to gain the decades of momentum it had before the mandated two-year pandemic shutdown. Venue owners are now tasked with reintroducing people to the magic of live music–as if an entire generation missed their teen years of exploring live music.

“Independently owned and operated venues play a vital role in shaping their respective cities’ diverse cultural landscape and contributing to the success of their hometown talent. That’s too much weight for one person to carry, especially considering that talent booking is just one task on a long to-do list," explains AmptUp Founder and CEO Holly Hagerman. 

AmptUp democratizes access to advanced booking technology and resources that haven’t been available to independent venues–empowering them to thrive in a competitive landscape and spend less time communicating contractual details and logistics. This opens up more time for bookers to curate killer lineups and focus on getting fans through the door.

The all-in-one booking platform lightens the load for touring musicians too–streamlining the booking process to save them time, money, and any additional stress.

“This is just way more streamlined and user friendly and to the point, any questions that anyone might have had will be answered,” says Tori Roze of Tori Roze & the Hot Mess, a frequent headliner at The Boom Boom Room. “Honestly, if Venues started using this, their lives would be so much easier. Yeah, I dig it, It’s cool.” 

“AmptUp is intuitive and thorough. Booking offers are simplified and marketing assets are provided in one neat little package,” explains Zander Andreas, Founder and Owner of The Boom Boom Room. “I’m thrilled with AmptUp.”

Recently launching in Portland, AmptUp partnered with several local independent venues before spreading to other cultural epicenters around the US. Placing great emphasis on empowering the diverse voices of independent artists nationwide, AmptUp looks forward to fostering lasting partnerships with more beloved venues, like The Boom Boom Room, this year. 

About AmptUp
AmptUp believes in the power of independent live music. We are dedicated to making independent live music stronger, easier, and more sustainable – for venues, for musicians, and for fans. We aim to do this through increasing transparency and improving communication and operational efficiency throughout the entire live music ecosystem. Join AmptUp’s community of partnered venues spanning from coast to coast at amptup.com.

AmptUp, the all-in-one live music booking platform, has signed the first of its venues in the vibrant city of Portland. Among the inaugural VIP partners are Artichoke Music and Alberta Abbey, two esteemed live music establishments deeply rooted in the city’s diverse local music scene and committed to empowering its musicians.

Independently owned and operated venues play a vital role in shaping their respective city’s diverse cultural landscape and contributing to the success of their hometown talent. That’s a lot of weight for one talent booker to carry, especially considering that they are typically tasked with so much more than filling their stages–coordinating schedules, negotiating contracts, and more. AmptUp lightens the lift for venues, simplifying and streamlining the booking process so talent bookers can focus on what matters most–curating killer lineups that fill seats.

"We understand the unique challenges faced by both independent venues and touring musicians, and we are excited to collaborate with Artichoke Music and Alberta Abbey to elevate the local music scene," says Holly Hagerman, CEO of AmptUp. "Our platform is designed to democratize access to advanced booking technology, empowering independent venues to thrive in a competitive landscape."

In just one month following AmptUp’s launch in Portland, venues around the country joined to become partners. AmptUp's arrival in Portland and subsequent spread to other cultural epicenters in the US marks a significant step forward for the city's music community. With a commitment to supporting local businesses and amplifying the voices of independent artists, AmptUp looks forward to fostering lasting partnerships with venues that share its dedication to the vibrancy of Portland's live music scene.

“In the end, our goal is to support these independently owned and operated venues that showcase the incredible musicians who are the beating heart of their cities,” explains Hagerman.”

For more information about AmptUp and its live music booking platform, please visit amptup.com.

About AmptUp
AmptUp believes in the power of independent live music. We are dedicated to making independent live music stronger, easier, and more sustainable – for venues, for musicians, and for fans. We aim to do this through increasing transparency and improving communication and operational efficiency throughout the entire live music ecosystem.

Talent bookers are tasked with so much more than simply finding artists to fill their stages–from coordinating crucial scheduling and communicating soundcheck details to negotiating contracts and managing payouts. For many independent venues, the talent booker is also the general manager or owner with a lot of spinning plates to balance. AmptUp, the all-in-one booking app for venues, simplifies and streamlines these processes so talent bookers can spend more time curating killer lineups that fill seats and artists have all of the information they need from go.

“We’ve found that booking an act requires an average of 13 emails,” says Holly Hagerman, Co-Founder of AmptUp. “Artists and talent bookers are busy people, on the road touring and running their venues. By replacing the back-and-forth communication of traditional booking with AmptUp, we can cut the process down from 3 weeks to 3 minutes–translating to crucial dollars saved, critical show-stopping errors avoided, and much stronger relationships between artists and venues.”

With a few clicks, AmptUp replaces the old email chains–universally dreaded by artists–and serves as a single source of truth for everyone involved in the booking process. Venues can track the status of a booking in real-time, receive artist assets at the time of booking, and easily calculate payouts. Meanwhile, musicians have centralized access to every detail to ensure they arrive on time and with all the right equipment–booking confirmations, tech setup information, house rules, and even the marketing and hospitality offers from the venue.

Until AmptUp, almost no software existed to manage booking for independent venues. This left bookers to resort to inefficient email threads, spreadsheets, and separate calendars to track everything. With a high turnover rate in the industry, venues run the risk of losing all of their data when their bar manager-turned-booker takes another job; and for most music venues, their calendar and contacts are their lifeblood.

AmptUp Co-Founder Holly Hagerman began with a plan to build a physical rehearsal space, concert hall, and cafe with her musician husband, but a lightbulb moment one dark and stormy night in 2020 led Holly to realize that what musicians really needed was help getting booked.  Exhilarated by the idea of helping artists and venues bounce back to in-person events after the pandemic lockdowns, Holly got to work building a platform that simplifies talent booking for all parties involved. This was a natural evolution thanks to Holly’s background as a business founder and investor in online marketplaces. Prior to AmptUp, she founded Green Rising, a B-corp certified boutique marketing agency that exclusively served socially conscious and environmentally friendly businesses. 

With 11 pending patents in the US and Europe, AmptUp provides the critical resources and tools necessary to lighten the lift for independent venues–freeing up hours of time usually spent coordinating booking details via emails, texts, and Facebook Messenger when they should be promoting shows and getting more people through the doors.

“Smart, simple, affordable professional tools level-up the entire industry. We are determined to make it easier for musicians and venues to make a living with their work,” says Hagerman. “They are the beating heart of every city, we need them. With our sights set on improving equity for people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ communities in music, we hope to transform music culture so that any city can become a “music city.” 

About AmptUp
AmptUp believes in the power of independent live music. We are dedicated to making independent live music stronger, easier, and more sustainable – for venues, for musicians, and for fans. We aim to do this through increasing transparency and improving communication and operational efficiency throughout the entire live music ecosystem