BookLive gives your musicians the ability to initiate their own substitute search directly from their performance view — no back-and-forth with you required. When this feature is enabled, a Request Substitute button appears on the musician’s performance page. One click notifies all qualified available musicians simultaneously, keeps the original musician covered while a replacement is found, and alerts you the moment the request is triggered.
Before You Begin #
- You must be a group leader with access to Group Settings.
- The feature only works when musicians have been formally invited to the performance and have accepted their seat.
- At least one Personnel List should be attached to performances — this is the roster BookLive contacts when a substitute is needed.
Step 1: Enable the Setting in Group Settings #
By default, musicians cannot initiate their own substitute search. To turn this on:
- Log in at https://booklive.com/login.
- Navigate to your group and click Group Settings in the left sidebar.
- Scroll to the General Settings section.
- Find Allow Musicians to Request Substitutes and toggle it on.
- Save your settings.
Once enabled, the Request Substitute button becomes visible to all booked musicians across every upcoming performance.
Step 2: What the Musician Sees #
When a musician opens their performance view (via their email invitation link or direct URL), they will see a Request Substitute button near their gig details. This button only appears when:
- The Allow Musicians to Request Substitutes setting is enabled for your group.
- The musician has an accepted seat on the performance.
- A substitute search has not already been started for their seat.
After a search is in progress, the button changes to Substitute Search in Progress and cannot be clicked again.
Step 3: How the Substitute Search Works #
When a musician clicks Request Substitute and confirms the prompt:
- BookLive immediately contacts all available musicians on your Personnel List who match the required specialty — all at once (a “shotgun” broadcast).
- The first musician to accept gets the seat.
- The original musician remains on their seat and stays covered until a replacement accepts. They are only released once a substitute is confirmed.
- All other contacted musicians who did not accept receive a notification that the position has been filled.
- When a substitute accepts, the original musician receives a text notification: “Your substitute request has been filled. You are released from that performance!”
Step 4: Review the Leader Notification #
As soon as a musician initiates a substitute search, BookLive sends all group leaders an email notification with the subject: “Substitute Requested: [Group Name] – [Performance Name].”
The email includes:
- Performance date, time, and venue
- The name of the original musician and their position (specialty)
- How many available musicians were contacted
- A direct link to the performance in BookLive
If no available musicians were found on the roster, the email will warn you so you can manually reach out or adjust your personnel list.
Tips & Notes #
- Sub Lists: If your performance has both a Personnel List and a Sub List attached, the system will draw substitutes from the Personnel List by default. To control which roster is used for bandleader-initiated requests, see Choosing Which Roster to Use When Requesting a Substitute.
- Shotgun vs. ordered: Musician-initiated substitute searches contact all eligible musicians at once — it is first-come, first-served. This differs from Auto-Fill, which contacts musicians in hiring-order sequence.
- Specialty matching: Only musicians on your Personnel List who share the same specialty as the open seat will be contacted. Musicians already booked on the performance are automatically excluded.
- Coverage: The original musician is never removed from the performance until a substitute accepts. This prevents gaps in your roster during the search.
