Side A · Track 1
The Dates Are Already On The Wall
Look at your calendar. Every one of those nights is a night you get paid exactly once, at the door, split however the room decides.
You are already doing the hard part. The booking, the load-in, the drive, the two hours of playing. All of it is done whether eleven people show up or two hundred do.
A listening pass is a second line on a night you were playing anyway. No new bookings to chase, no extra miles in the van, no gear to buy. The same set, sold twice — once to the room, once to everyone who wanted to be in it.
Side A · Track 2
Who Actually Buys One
Not the people standing in front of you. They already paid. A pass is for everyone who wanted to and couldn't.
The other cities
People who follow you from three states away and will not see you this year. They have no way to give you money on a Friday night. This is one.
Sold out
The night sells out and the demand does not stop at the fire code. Everyone turned away at the door is a pass you did not offer.
Couldn't get out
Works nights. Couldn't get a sitter. Not drinking this year. Can't do crowds. Still wants to hear the set.
None of them are competing with a ticket. A pass does not cost you a body in the room — nobody drives ninety minutes to a club and then decides to sit at home because a stream exists. It is money from an audience that was never going to be at the door.
Side A · Track 3
Do The Math
Put your own numbers in. This is arithmetic on what you tell it — not a projection, and not a promise.
a year · $125 a night · before fees and payment processing
The number that decides everything here is passes per show, and it is the one nobody can hand you — not us, not anybody. It depends on your draw, your pricing, how hard you push it from the stage and the merch table, and whether the audio is actually good. The 25 sitting there is a placeholder to move, not a benchmark we have data for. Price one show low, count what happens, then put the real number in.
Side B · Track 1
And You Keep It
You set the price. Payouts run through Stripe to the band's account.
The door split is the door split — you are not winning that argument tonight. But the stream is not in the venue's contract. It is your performance, your audience and your price, on a night the room was only ever going to pay you once for.
Per show, not per month
Price each night on its own. Free for the hometown one, five bucks for the record release, name-your-own for the benefit.
They keep the pass
It stays on their phone. They can walk out, come back, and still be in.
Sell it after
The people who missed it are still buying. A pass does not have to stop being worth something at last call.
Side B · Track 2
How It Works
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Plug in
Board feed into a Scarlett or Zoom type interface and a device with internet access. That’s it. No rack gear, no transmitter, no license, and nothing new in the van.
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Put a price on it
Set what a pass costs for that night. One link, one QR code — on the flyer, on the merch table, in the story you post at 9:15.
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Play
Everyone who bought one is listening, on their own earbuds, wherever they are. You play the show you were already playing.
Side B · Track 3
What Else It Does
The revenue is the reason. These come with it.
The patio and the pavement
Everyone the room couldn't hold, and the ones smoking out front, hear the same mix as the front row.
The 10 PM problem
Noise ordinance, curfew, the neighbour who always calls. A stream has no volume at the property line, so the set keeps going in a hundred pairs of earbuds after the PA comes down.
A direct line
Anyone who bought a pass chose you on a specific night at a specific hour. That is not a follower, that’s a fan.
Liner notes
B-Side Cast runs on BYOPA, which is the thing that actually does the streaming, the passes and the payouts. This site is the version of it written for bands, because the pitch for a band is not the pitch for a conference centre and we got tired of pretending otherwise.
If you want the plain-English explanation of the underlying idea — audio delivered to people instead of blasted across a space — that lives at instantaudio.live.
no hardware · no app · no kidding
Put It On One Show
Pick a date you already have booked. Price a pass low. Count what happens.
Takes about five minutes. You need a board feed and a phone.