Song requests
Build your covers set in blocks, not a fixed running order
How to build a covers set list that has room for requests: song blocks, flex slots, a request-ready repertoire list and a plan for songs you do not know yet.
Read
Last song of the second set. Someone at the table nearest the mic stand leans over, says that was brilliant, and pats their pockets. No coins, no notes, just a phone. They smile, shrug and go back to their drink. The pint glass on the monitor holds the fiver you put in yourself at the start of the night.
That shrug is money that wanted to reach you and couldn't. Most people pay for everything with a card or a phone now, so a tip jar only works for the few who still carry cash. The fix isn't complicated, but it's easy to get wrong in ways that cost you at the stand.
Why the jar goes quiet
A tip is an impulse. It happens in the few seconds after a song lands, or when someone walks past on the way to the bar. If getting from "I'd like to give them something" to done takes longer than that impulse lasts, it doesn't happen.
Cash used to fit that window: hand in pocket, note in jar, done. Now the first step fails for most of the room. People don't decide not to tip. They find they can't, and the moment passes. So the real question isn't how to get people to tip. It's how to make the route short enough for the phone in their hand.
Three things make that route longer:
- Hunting. They have to work out how to tip: ask you, ask the bar, search for your name.
- Typing. They have to type a handle, an amount, a name, or sign up for something.
- Waiting. They have to wait for you to finish a song so you can hold out a card reader.
Every option below trades those three off against each other.
Four ways to take tips without cash
| Cash jar | Card reader | Payment-app handle or QR | Tip page from a QR code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What the fan needs | Cash | A card or phone to tap | The same payment app as you, often with an account | A phone camera and a card |
| Setup for you | A jar | Buy a reader, keep it charged, pair it with your phone | An account and a printed handle or code | A page and printed codes |
| Speed at the stand | Fast, if they have cash | Fast once it's in their hand, slow if you have to stop playing | Slow if they type a handle, quicker with a code | A scan and a few taps, without you |
| Needs you free to handle it | No | Usually, or a helper | No | No |
| Works from the table | No, the jar sits by you | Only where the reader is | Yes | Yes |
| Signal needed | None | The reader needs a connection | The fan needs signal | The fan needs signal |
| Cost per tip | Nothing | Card processing fees | Depends on the app and account type | A service fee on each tip |
A few things the table doesn't show.
A card reader is good at a stall, a market or a busking pitch where someone can hold it out. At a pub gig where you're behind a mic for two hours, it sits on the amp until the break, by which point the person who wanted to tip has gone home. If you use one, hand it to someone who isn't playing.
A payment-app handle works when your audience already uses the same app. That's often true at a regular gig with a local crowd and often not true at a function with guests from all over. Asking a stranger to install an app so they can give you a few quid is too much.
A tip page opened from a QR code asks the least of the fan: open the camera, point, tap an amount, pay by card. Nothing to install, no account. The catch is that you need a page and printed codes, and it only works if the code is somewhere people can see it. There's more on the printing side in how to use QR codes at your gigs.
Keep the jar anyway. It costs nothing, some people like dropping a note in, and a jar with money in it tells the room that tipping is normal here.
Choosing for the gigs you actually play
The room matters more than the method. A rough guide:
| Gig type | What tends to work | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pub or bar residency | QR code on the mic stand and table cards, plus the jar | People are seated, phones on the table, and many come back weekly |
| Busking pitch | Open case, card reader in view, a code on a board | Passers-by give in seconds; the reader and code catch the people without cash |
| Wedding or private function | Usually nothing; ask the client first | Tipping is often unwelcome at a paid function |
| Restaurant background set | Small table cards only | Nobody wants a reader waved at them during dinner |
| Open mic or showcase | A code on the mic stand, mentioned once | Short slots, lots of acts, keep it simple |
The wedding line matters. If the client is paying you, ask whether they're happy for anything to be on display. Some are. Many would rather their guests weren't asked for money. Their answer is the answer, and you'll want the next booking from that room more than the tips.
Where to put the code
A code nobody sees gets no scans. Put it where people already look:
- On the mic stand, at chest height, facing out. It's in every photo and every glance at you.
- On table cards, one per table, with a line such as "Tips and requests. Scan with your camera." Tables are where phones sit.
- By the bar, where people stand waiting with a phone already in their hand.
- On a poster by the door, for people leaving who meant to tip earlier.
Print it big enough to scan from a table away. A code the size of a beer mat scans from a couple of metres in decent light. A postage-stamp one on a dark stage doesn't. Black on white with a clear white border scans best. Before the first set, test every placement from where a fan would actually sit, under the stage lights, on an older phone if you can borrow one.
If you can, give each placement its own code. Then you can see whether the table cards or the mic stand do the work, and stop printing the ones that don't.
What to say from the stage
Most people don't know tipping is an option until you tell them. You don't need a speech. One line, once a set, after a song that went down well:
- "If you fancy leaving a tip, the code on the mic stand takes cards. Just point your camera at it."
- "Cheers. The code on your table does tips and requests, no app needed."
- "No cash, no problem. There's a code by the bar."
Say it once and move on. The same line every three songs turns a gig into a collection. Mention it again before the last song, when people are deciding whether to stay for one more drink.
If you also take song requests, say both in one breath, because one scan does both. Our guide on taking song requests at a gig covers the requests side without losing control of the set, and building a covers set list that takes requests helps you say yes more often.
Keep tips and requests separate
This is the one rule worth holding to. A tip is thanks. It should never buy a place in the request queue.
If a tip moves a request up, the loudest wallet runs the set, the regular who asked nicely gets skipped, and you end up playing a song you can't stand at eleven o'clock because someone paid for it. It also turns tipping into a transaction, and people are less generous with transactions than with thanks.
So take requests as suggestions, decide what fits the set, and let tips sit alongside as a separate thing. If someone tips and requests, play their song if it fits, same as anyone else's. Say so from the stage if people ask. It makes the room trust the requests.
The boring bits: fees, payouts and tax
Every cashless method costs something. Card readers carry processing fees, payment apps may charge on business accounts, and tip pages take a service fee. The jar is the only free option, and it's free partly because most of the room can't use it. Weigh the fee on a tip against the tip you wouldn't have had at all.
Before you rely on any method, check:
- What the fan sees before they pay, including any fee.
- When the money reaches your account, and what you need to set up first.
- Whether you can switch tipping off for gigs where it isn't welcome.
- That the page works on patchy venue signal, not just on your home Wi-Fi.
Tips are income. Check how tips are treated where you work, and keep a note of what came in at each gig so the figures are there when you need them.
One last thing: the person who tipped tonight is the easiest person to bring back next week. Getting fans to your next gig covers how to put the next date in front of them before they leave.
Where GigTag fits
GigTag gives your act one QR code for the mic stand, table cards and posters. It opens a page where fans can tip by card where you've switched tipping on, request a song and see your next gigs, with nothing to download, and a tip never changes a request's place in the queue. It's free to start: see how it works, then Create your act