BandLoot: Free Web App For Band Money Management

BandLoot is a free web-based service designed to allow bands to handle their money in a transparent manner to which all band members can have access. It was developed by the folks at EarMaster and was inspired by an employee who felt that his band needed something like this. Currently BandLoot is in beta and ready for bands to try out.

EarMaster ApS is a Danish company that provides ear training software for educational settings as well as both amateur and professional musicians. One of their employees was sharing his band's need for transparent money management tools, some other employees got interested and they began to work on a web-based app to address the need.

BandLoot.com – The Free Money Management Web App for Bands

EarMaster then surveyed over 2000 bands, found that 60% of them said they had gone through money-related conflicts and that 5% had broken up over disagreements. So EarMaster made it an official project. Now BandLoot is freely available for use focused on some fairly basic needs:

"BandLoot is a free online money tracker for bands. With Bandloot, all the members of your band can check how your band money is used, how much cash the band actually has, and how much each band member owes to the rest of the band."

BandLoot is based on the concept of Social Accounting:

"Social Accounting means that money management is handled collectively by a group of persons (the shareholders) in all transparency. The great novelty here is that instead of leaving all responsibility on one single person’s shoulders, finances can now be managed easily together, as a group, with little or no room for mistrust or disputes."

The web app is powered by Google App Engine and stored on Google's cloud storage solution.

You can check out the demo as well as a straightforward how to section.

While this isn't advanced software to handle all the financial records of a professional band, it is a great place to start out especially for tracking basic expenses and shared financial responsiblities.

Hypebot Features Writer Clyde Smith blogs about business at Flux Research: Business Changes and about dance at All World Dance: News. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.