Which way of taking requests suits your gig?
There are five common ways, and each one moves the work to a different person. Pick one and tell the room about it from the microphone. Two channels at once means two places to check between songs.
| Method | What the guest does | What it costs you on stage | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shouted or walk-up | Calls out, or comes to the stage between songs | You hear it mid-song, the loudest guest wins, and nothing is written down | Small rooms and informal sets |
| Paper slips or cards | Writes a title and drops it in a jar or hands it over | Someone has to collect and read handwriting in low light; slips arrive in a pile at the break | Seated rooms, restaurants, weddings with a host |
| A printed song menu | Chooses from a list of songs you already play | Printing and keeping the list current; guests cannot ask for anything off the list, which is the point | Acts with a fixed repertoire who want no surprises |
| Messages to a phone number | Texts or sends a WhatsApp message to a number on a sign | Your personal number is on the wall, messages mix with your own, and a phone lights up through the whole set | Regular residencies where you know the crowd |
| A QR code to a request page | Scans a code on the table and types or searches for a song | You need a connection and a screen you can see; guests without a signal cannot use it | Rooms where people are seated with phones out |
None of these is right for every room. A printed menu and a QR page are the two that keep requests readable and in one place. Paper is the one that still works when the venue has no signal at all.
What should you decide before the first set?
Requests go wrong when the band makes the rules up between songs. Settle these beforehand, and tell the band:
- Who reads requests. One person. In a band it is usually whoever calls the songs.
- When they are read. Between songs or at the break, never during a song.
- What you say yes to. Songs you have rehearsed. Decide whether a song one member half-knows counts.
- Where accepted requests go. A marked slot in each set, or the last set only.
- Whose list outranks a guest. At a private event, the client's do-not-play list does.
- How you say no. One friendly line that everyone in the band uses.
- Whether money is involved. If guests can pay to be heard, say how and say what it buys.
A band that has agreed these seven points can take requests all night without a discussion on stage.
Where do requests go in the running order?
Plan the room for them before the gig. If you write a set that fills every minute, each request you accept either pushes a planned song out or runs you past the finish time.
The simplest method is to swap, not add. Mark two or three songs in each set as the ones you will drop, and a request takes the place of one of them. The set length calculator adds spare songs to its total for this reason: they are the songs you can lose without the set running short.
Put the request slot late in a set, after a run that has the room moving, and not as the opener.
If the singer needs words for a song that was asked for ten minutes ago, the lyrics have to be on the screen before the count-in. Search and lyric fetching need a connection, and not every song has lyrics available, so that is part of deciding whether to say yes.
How do you turn a request down?
Quickly, by name if you have it, and with something offered in return. Three lines you can adapt:
- "We don't have that one tonight. Here is another from the same artist."
- "That is a late-night song. Ask us again in the last set."
- "The couple have chosen tonight's list, so we are sticking to it."
Do not explain at length from the stage, and do not promise a song you will not play. A guest who has been told "later" will come back.
How does a QR code request page work?
A QR page moves the request off paper and onto the screen the band is already reading. StageFloww, the setlist and stage-lyrics app, is one way to run it: you start a live session, and it shows a code and a link. Posters and table tents with the code download as PNG files for printing. Guests enter a name and a phone number. They need no app and no account.
Each request appears on your screen during the session. You accept it, decline it, or add the song to tonight's set, and the guest sees which on their phone. Nothing joins the running order unless you add it. The steps are on the page about song requests by QR code.
Three things to know before you rely on it. Requests carry a name and a phone number, so they are not anonymous, and some guests will not want to give a number. The page needs a connection on your device and on the guest's. And it takes requests during a live session only, so it does not collect a couple's choices in the weeks before a wedding.
Can guests pay for a request?
That depends on the country you are playing in. Tips and paid requests pay out in India only. Outside India you can still take free song requests.
In India, a guest can tip or pay to boost a request from the same QR page, and the money is paid out to an Indian UPI ID or bank account. In every other country, StageFloww handles the request and you handle the money your usual way: a jar on the stage, or a sign with your own payment-app code beside it.
If money can move a song up the list, say so from the microphone. A room that does not know the rule will assume the band is ignoring it.
For how requests fit into a whole night with a band on mixed phones, see StageFloww for cover bands. For a wedding day, where the couple's list comes first, see the page for wedding bands.