Sometimes a confirmed musician can no longer make a performance — whether due to an emergency, scheduling conflict, or other circumstance. BookLive gives you a dedicated way to remove a musician from a seat while automatically notifying them, keeping your seat history accurate, and leaving the seat open so you can fill it again.
Before You Begin #
- You must be a group leader or admin to remove musicians from seats.
- The Kick button only appears for seats where a musician has been assigned (accepted or directly placed). If a seat has a pending request that hasn’t been answered yet, use the Adjust Deadline chip to expire it instead.
Step 1: Open the Performance #
Go to Performances in the left sidebar and click the performance you need to update.
Step 2: Go to the Musicians Tab #
On the performance detail page, click the Musicians tab. You’ll see a list of all seats — filled and unfilled — for this performance.
Step 3: Open the Seat Panel #
Find the seat with the musician you need to remove. Click the edit (pencil) icon on that seat row to open the seat detail panel.
Step 4: Click Kick #
At the bottom of the seat panel, you’ll see a row of action buttons. Click the red Kick button.
A confirmation dialog will appear: “Are you sure you want to kick [Musician Name] out of this seat?”
Click OK to confirm.
What Happens Next #
When you kick a musician, BookLive immediately:
- Removes them from the seat — the seat reverts to unfilled and is available to be staffed again.
- Clears any singer assignments — if the musician was assigned as a singer on the performance timeline, that assignment is automatically cleared.
- Notifies the musician by email — they receive an email with the subject line “Removed From Performance: [Group Name] — [Title] — [Date]” listing the group name, instrument, and performance date/time.
- Sends an SMS notification — if the musician has a phone number on file, they also receive a text: “You have been removed from the following performance: [Group Name] — [Title].”
- Removes their Google Calendar event — if the musician has Google Calendar sync enabled, the performance event is deleted from their calendar.
- Logs the action in Seat History — the removal is recorded in the seat’s activity log with a timestamp and your name.
Filling the Seat Again #
After kicking a musician, the seat is open and ready to be filled. You have several options:
- Send a new request manually — assign a different musician directly from the seat panel.
- Use the Substitute button — on the Musicians tab, click Substitute on that seat to send a broadcast request to your sub list or personnel list. See Choosing Which Roster to Use When Requesting a Substitute for details.
- Re-enable Auto-Fill — if Auto-Fill is active on this performance, it will move to the next available musician in your hiring order automatically once the previous deadline expires. You may also need to resume it if it was halted. See Using Auto-Fill to Automatically Staff Performances.
Kick vs. Delete vs. Substitute #
- Kick — removes an assigned musician from the seat but keeps the seat open. Use this when the musician can no longer perform and you need to find a replacement.
- Delete — removes the entire seat slot from the performance. Use this when you no longer need the position at all (e.g., the event changed and you need fewer musicians).
- Substitute — keeps the original musician in the seat and sends a broadcast request to find a replacement. Use this when the musician is requesting coverage themselves or you want to proactively find backup. See Allowing Musicians to Request Their Own Substitute.
Viewing Seat History #
To see a log of everything that’s happened to a seat — including when a musician was kicked — click the clock (history) icon on any seat row in the Musicians tab. The Seat History dialog shows each action with the timestamp and the name of the user who performed it.
Tips & Notes #
- Kicking a musician does not affect any payments that have already been recorded for that seat. Review the Payments tab if compensation adjustments are needed.
- If the musician has not yet accepted their request (status is still pending), you do not need to kick them — simply let the deadline expire or adjust it via the deadline chip on their seat row.
- The kicked musician receives a reply-to email pointing to the performance organizer, so they can follow up if needed.
