StageLog — Automated Night-Of Settlement Reports for Independent Music Venues
Independent music venue talent buyers spend 2-3 hours after every show calculating the artist settlement — door splits, bar guarantees, merch percentages, and production deductions — on a legal pad or a chaotic spreadsheet. StageLog turns the show contract into a pre-filled settlement calculator that spits out a signed PDF in 4 minutes.
Difficulty
beginner
Category
Restaurant Tech
Market Demand
Medium
Revenue Score
6/10
Platform
Web App
Vibe Code Friendly
⚡ YesHackathon Score
6/10
What is it?
Every independent venue operates on deal memos that define complex splits — 80/20 after a $500 guarantee against 15% of bar over $3,000, minus backline costs, plus 20% of merch. Calculating this wrong means paying the artist too much or triggering a dispute. The current solution is a spreadsheet chaos model that every venue rebuilds from scratch. StageLog lets the talent buyer enter the deal terms once per show, enter night-of actuals (door count, bar gross, merch gross), and instantly calculates the exact artist payout with a breakdown, then generates a PDF settlement sheet for both parties to sign via DocuSign. Buildable in two weeks because the math is deterministic, the PDF generation is straightforward with react-pdf, and DocuSign has a well-documented free tier.
Why now?
The NIVA post-pandemic venue recovery has 4,000 independent venues back to full show schedules and desperate to professionalize operations without enterprise software budgets — the market timing is perfect for a $49/month tool.
- ▸Deal memo builder that stores guarantee, door split percentage, bar bonus threshold, and merch percentage per show.
- ▸Night-of actuals entry form that calculates the exact artist payout with a full line-item breakdown in real time.
- ▸react-pdf settlement sheet generator that produces a professional branded PDF matching standard industry format.
- ▸DocuSign envelope routing so both talent buyer and artist manager sign the settlement digitally before payment.
Target Audience
Independent music venues with 100-1,500 capacity, estimated 4,000 in the US, whose talent buyers handle settlements manually after every show.
Example Use Case
Derek, a talent buyer at a 400-cap venue, enters the deal terms when he books the show, then on the night enters door count 312 and bar gross $4,200 and instantly sees the artist owes $2,847 with a line-item breakdown, and emails the signed PDF to the agent in 4 minutes.
User Stories
- ▸As a venue talent buyer, I want to enter night-of door and bar numbers and instantly see the exact artist payout, so that I stop making math errors on complex guarantee-vs-percentage deals.
- ▸As a talent buyer, I want to generate a professional settlement PDF and send it for digital signature in under 5 minutes, so that I stop chasing wet-signature faxes from artist managers.
- ▸As a venue GM, I want a history of all past show settlements searchable by artist, so that I can answer audit questions without digging through a filing cabinet.
Done When
- ✓Payout calculation: done when entering door count and bar gross produces a correctly calculated artist payout matching manual Excel math for a guarantee-plus-percentage deal.
- ✓PDF generation: done when clicking Generate Settlement produces a downloadable PDF with all line items, totals, and venue branding visible.
- ✓DocuSign: done when both the talent buyer email and artist manager email receive a DocuSign envelope with the settlement PDF attached.
- ✓Show history: done when the dashboard lists all past shows with artist name, date, and final payout amount visible without opening each record.
Is it worth building?
$49/month x 60 venues = $2,940 MRR at month 4. $49/month x 200 venues = $9,800 MRR at month 12.
Unit Economics
CAC: $15 via cold email outreach. LTV: $588 (12 months at $49/month). Payback: under 1 month. Gross margin: 88%.
Business Model
SaaS subscription
Monetization Path
Free tier: 5 settlements. Paid: $49/month unlimited settlements and DocuSign signature routing.
Revenue Timeline
First dollar: week 2 via beta venue upgrade. $1k MRR: month 4. $5k MRR: month 10.
Estimated Monthly Cost
Vercel: $20, Supabase: $25, DocuSign API: $25, Stripe fees: $15. Total: ~$85/month at launch.
Profit Potential
Solid lifestyle business at $3k-$8k MRR with zero churn risk — venues re-use every show night.
Scalability
Can expand to agent-facing portals where agents see their client's settlement history, multi-venue groups, and integration with Stripe for direct artist payouts.
Success Metrics
Week 1: 10 beta venue signups from NIVA forums. Week 3: 5 paid. Month 2: 90% retention (venues show up every show night).
Launch & Validation Plan
Post in the NIVA member Facebook group and r/WeAreTheMusicMakers asking if venues settle on spreadsheets and count responses before building anything.
Customer Acquisition Strategy
First customer: email 30 independent venue talent buyers found via Songkick venue listings offering 6 months free in exchange for weekly feedback. Ongoing: NIVA association outreach, booking agent referral network, music industry Facebook groups.
What's the competition?
Competition Level
Low
Similar Products
Prism.fm is a full venue management suite at $300/month — too expensive for 200-cap rooms. SettlementHub exists but has no AI and a clunky 2010-era UI. Excel remains the dominant solution — StageLog wins by being purpose-built and mobile-friendly for night-of entry.
Competitive Advantage
Purpose-built for venue settlements unlike generic contract tools, handles the complex guarantee-vs-percentage deal structures that trip up Excel, and generates an industry-standard PDF format agents recognize.
Regulatory Risks
Low regulatory risk — generating a settlement document is not a legal filing. Ensure DocuSign envelopes include standard boilerplate noting this is a settlement record not a legal contract.
What's the roadmap?
Feature Roadmap
V1 (launch): deal memo, payout calculator, PDF gen, DocuSign. V2 (month 2-3): settlement history search, CSV export. V3 (month 4+): agent portal, Stripe direct artist payout.
Milestone Plan
Phase 1 (Week 1-2): deal form, payout calculator, react-pdf generation done. Phase 2 (Week 3-4): DocuSign, Stripe gate, NIVA community launch. Phase 3 (Month 2): 20 paid venues, settlement history page.
How do you build it?
Tech Stack
Next.js, Supabase, react-pdf, DocuSign API, Stripe — build with Lovable for the full UI, Cursor for PDF generation logic
Suggested Frameworks
Next.js App Router, react-pdf, Supabase Auth
Time to Ship
10 days
Required Skills
Next.js forms, react-pdf, DocuSign API basic integration, Supabase.
Resources
react-pdf docs, DocuSign REST API quickstart, Supabase quickstart, Next.js forms guide.
MVP Scope
app/page.tsx (show list dashboard), app/shows/new/page.tsx (deal memo entry form), app/shows/[id]/settle/page.tsx (night-of actuals and payout calculator), app/api/generate-pdf/route.ts (react-pdf settlement sheet), app/api/send-docusign/route.ts (DocuSign envelope), lib/db/schema.ts (shows, deals, settlements), components/PayoutBreakdown.tsx (line-item display), .env.example (Supabase, DocuSign, Stripe keys)
Core User Journey
Create show with deal terms -> enter night-of actuals -> see payout breakdown -> generate PDF -> send DocuSign -> done in 4 minutes.
Architecture Pattern
Talent buyer enters deal terms -> stored in Supabase -> night-of actuals entered -> payout calculation runs client-side -> react-pdf generates settlement PDF -> DocuSign API sends envelope -> signed PDF stored in Supabase Storage.
Data Model
Venue has many Shows. Show has one DealMemo and one Settlement. Settlement has many LineItems and one SignedPDFUrl.
Integration Points
DocuSign REST API for digital signature routing, react-pdf for PDF generation, Supabase for show and settlement storage, Stripe for billing.
V1 Scope Boundaries
V1 excludes: agent-facing portal, direct Stripe artist payouts, multi-venue groups, ticket system integration, mobile native app.
Success Definition
A venue talent buyer uses StageLog on show night, generates a settlement PDF, gets it signed via DocuSign, and pays the artist — all without opening a spreadsheet or calling the founder.
Challenges
The hardest non-technical problem is distribution — independent venue talent buyers are not online and are reached through NIVA (National Independent Venue Association) membership forums, personal cold email, and word of mouth from booking agents.
Avoid These Pitfalls
Do not try to automate deal memo parsing from uploaded PDFs in V1 — manual entry is fast enough and avoids parsing errors that cause settlement disputes. Do not undercharge because venues are notoriously cash-strapped — $49/month is already a bargain. First 10 paying venues will come from personal outreach not inbound.
Security Requirements
Supabase Auth with magic link, RLS on all show and settlement tables, signed URLs for PDF storage, DocuSign webhook verified with HMAC.
Infrastructure Plan
Vercel for hosting, Supabase for Postgres and PDF storage, Sentry for error tracking, GitHub Actions for CI, no CDN needed at launch scale.
Performance Targets
Payout calculation under 100ms client-side, PDF generation under 3s, page load under 2s, 50 DAU at launch.
Go-Live Checklist
- ☐Security audit complete.
- ☐Payment flow tested end-to-end.
- ☐Sentry error tracking live.
- ☐DocuSign envelope tested with real emails.
- ☐Custom domain with SSL configured.
- ☐Privacy policy and terms published.
- ☐5 beta venues confirmed settlement accuracy.
- ☐Rollback plan documented.
- ☐NIVA forum and cold email launch drafted.
First Run Experience
On first run: a demo show with a pre-built deal memo and night-of actuals is loaded showing a completed payout breakdown and a sample settlement PDF preview. User can immediately click Generate PDF and download it without entering any data.
How to build it, step by step
1. Define the DealMemo and Settlement database schema including all deal structure fields before any UI. 2. Scaffold Next.js app with Supabase Auth email magic link and a basic show list dashboard. 3. Build the deal memo entry form with fields for guarantee, door split, bar bonus threshold and percentage, merch cut, and deductions. 4. Build the night-of actuals form with real-time payout calculation logic that handles guarantee-vs-percentage correctly. 5. Build the PayoutBreakdown component that shows each line item with math visible. 6. Implement react-pdf settlement sheet that mirrors the standard industry format with venue logo, show details, and line items. 7. Integrate DocuSign API to send the generated PDF as an envelope to talent buyer and artist manager email addresses. 8. Add Stripe subscription gate that blocks PDF generation after 5 free settlements. 9. Seed the app with one pre-built demo show with deal terms and night-of actuals already entered. 10. Verify: run a full settlement calculation on a real show scenario, generate the PDF, send the DocuSign envelope, and confirm both parties receive it.
Generated
May 6, 2026
Model
claude-sonnet-4-6
Disclaimer: Ideas on this site are AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies. Revenue estimates, market demand figures, and financial projections are illustrative assumptions only — not financial advice. Do your own research before making any business or investment decisions. Technology availability, pricing, and market conditions change rapidly; always verify details independently.