How to Run the Door at Your Own Show: Guest Lists, QR Tickets, and Walk-Ups

Self-promoted shows die at the door more often than on stage: a friend with a cash box, a paper list nobody can read in the dark, and at settlement, three different opinions about how many people paid. The fix isn't hiring staff — it's giving whoever works your door a system that fits in their hand.

Before the show: issue real tickets

Musavise's ticketing issues numbered QR-coded tickets free — print them as physical strips to sell at rehearsal and around town, or send each buyer a link they screenshot to their phone. You set the price and collect the money however you like (cash, Venmo, whatever your scene uses); we never sit between you and your crowd, and there's no per-ticket fee — versus the ~24% a platform stack can skim off a $10 ticket.

Show night: one link runs the door

The door person — who needs no account and no app — opens a single link on their phone:

• Scan tickets with the camera: valid flashes green, already-scanned flashes the time it was first used, fakes flash invalid. Duplicates are the classic small-show scam, and the scanner simply ends it.

• Walk-up sales in two taps: collect the money, tap once, ticket issued and checked in with the next serial number.

• Guest list check-ins: tap a name as they arrive — who's still out is always visible.

• The live count — in vs. issued, against capacity — sits at the top of the screen the whole night.

After: settle on numbers, not vibes

At settlement the count isn't an argument — it's a screen. Tickets scanned, walk-ups sold, comps, capacity: the settlement one-pager prints it next to the deal terms with sign-off lines for you and the venue. Numbers go into your gig history, where they become the draw evidence for the next booking email.

One phone, zero fees, and a door your band can actually trust. That's the whole trick.

All of it lives in one free Musavise account — free means free, within honest limits, and your data exports whenever you want it. Create your free account; it takes about two minutes.