Custom performing arts software
Appfront builds custom software for theatre companies, producers and festivals in the performing arts: repertoire and production planning, casting and rehearsal schedules, tour planning with buyout fees or profit-sharing, technical riders, rights payments and grant reporting. For organisations that want to control the creative process behind the performance, not just ticket sales.
What is performing arts software?
Performing arts software supports the work behind the performance: which production is made when, who performs and works on it, which rehearsal spaces and sets are needed, which venues stage the show and under what terms, and which rights and reporting follow from that. It is not the same as ticket sales; for that we have a separate ticketing and booking platform.
In practice, this work is scattered across a production schedule in a spreadsheet, a touring list in a second spreadsheet, contracts in a folder structure, riders in loose PDF files, and accounts that only see the buyout fees after the fact. When a performance date shifts, it has to be updated in five places, and rarely are all five updated.
Custom software puts production at the centre and everything hangs off it: staffing, scheduling, setlist, arrangements per stage, technical requirements and payouts. If one date changes, everything shifts with it, and production, technical and administrative teams all see the same thing. More about our broader approach: building custom software.
Production as the hub
Repertoire, cast, rehearsals, sets, performance list and agreements all attach to a single production rather than to separate lists. If a premiere shifts, the whole chain shifts visibly with it.
Touring with real agreements
For each performance, you record whether it is a buyout fee, a profit-share or a mixed arrangement, including the threshold, percentage and who bears which costs. The expected income follows from that, not from a separate calculation.
Accountability without the detective work
Performances, attendance figures, geographical spread and makers' involvement can be read directly from the system, so reporting to funds and grant bodies comes out of the system rather than from a reconstruction.
If you build outdoors with temporary structures, the municipality will ask for structural data and an inspection on handover. See the app for grandstands and temporary structures.
How we build your performing arts software
We start with the production calendar and touring list as you currently maintain them, including the columns someone once added. That is where the real working process lives. Production, technical, artistic management and administration sit at the table early on.
We map out your production process: from repertoire selection and casting through to rehearsal planning, touring agreements, technical requirements and accountability. We also record what you deliberately want to keep outside the software.
We design the production model, the planning model for people and spaces, the appointment structure for each performance, and the integrations with ticketing, accounting and payroll. Rights and royalty payments have their place here too.
We build in short iterations with working demos, so a production manager can review progress early. We set up integrations with your ticketing platform and administration early on, as that is where most assumptions tend to break down.
Controlled go-live, preferably at the start of a new season, with migration of the current production calendar. Afterwards, ongoing management, monitoring and development each season.
What performing arts software actually does
A dance company with a fixed ensemble works differently from a producer who assembles a cast for each production. These are the features we most often deliver.
Repertoire & production planning
For each production, track its status from concept to revival, with premiere date, run period, co-producers and the budget line it belongs to. Revivals inherit the details of the original production.
Casting & cast management
Who plays which role, including understudies, double casting and availability. The contract type for each team member (employed, freelance or under the performers' scheme) determines which details payroll processing needs.
Rehearsal & venue scheduling
Schedules for rehearsals, technical work and editing, with studio and hall allocation. Clashes between people, rooms and productions become visible before the schedule is published. See also staff planning.
Tour & performance schedule
Requests and confirmations per venue, with buy-out fees or revenue sharing, options, cancellation terms and travel and accommodation arrangements. The performance schedule is a single source for the company, venues and publicity.
Technical riders & equipment
A rider per production with lighting, sound and set transport, linked to the venue data for the stage so deviations are visible in advance. Set, costumes and instruments follow as equipment with location and transport.
Rights & royalties
Registration of works used and their creators for each performance, as the basis for reporting to Buma/Stemra and Sena and for agreements with authors, translators and composers. This keeps royalty payments traceable per performance.
Who we build performing arts software for
The performing arts sector is small but diverse, and the administrative burden varies greatly by organisational type. These are the clients we most often build for.
Theatre and dance companies
Companies with their own artistic direction and a multi-year subsidy relationship, for example with the Dutch Performing Arts Fund (Fonds Podiumkunsten). They need production planning, tour management and accountability that align with their activity plan.
Producers and booking agencies
Organisations that bring productions to market and sell them to venues. For them the sales side matters most: options, confirmations, buy-outs and revenue sharing, and an overview of which production has availability where.
Festivals and concert series
Organisations that put together a programme for each edition from external performances and concerts, with their own locations, technology and volunteers. See also our page on event planning software.
Venues with their own programming
Theatres and concert halls that, alongside buying in shows, also make their own productions and co-productions. They combine venue management with production work and often want to connect with their ticketing and a visitor app.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
We build with a modern, maintainable web stack and integrate with the systems already running in your organisation: ticketing, accounting, payroll and your team's calendar.
If you run an education or participation programme alongside your public programme and account for it to funders, take a look at our app for participant accountability in cultural subsidies.
For reporting visitor numbers and performance agreements to subsidy providers, there is our app for audience reach and subsidy accountability.
Why Appfront for your performing arts software?
Appfront builds custom software and starts with an analysis of your actual process. In the performing arts, that process has almost always grown around people and habits, and the logic lives in the exceptions: the co-production with a different split, the revival with a half cast, the venue that always wants a sharing deal.
We don't engineer those exceptions away. Instead, we record them as explicit choices, so the software handles them without a shadow administration developing alongside it. Off-the-shelf packages from the events sector often force a model that doesn't suit a repertory company.
We write clear documentation and deliver transparent code, so that your own team or a future supplier can understand and manage the software. For a sector with small teams and limited IT capacity, that is the difference between ownership and dependency.
See also our wider services: custom software development and event technology. Questions about your situation? Get in touch with us.
- Custom development around production, not around the event
- Buy-outs, sharing and hybrid arrangements as first-class concepts
- Integration with ticketing instead of duplicate ticket sales
- Rights registration as the basis for Buma/Stemra and Sena reporting
- Contract types including self-employed and artist schemes
- Accountability to funders generated from the system
- Role-based authorisation and audit logging
- Clear documentation your own team can maintain
- A dedicated contact who understands the sector
- Ongoing management and seasonal development
Security and privacy in performing arts software
A production system holds personal data on makers, performers, technicians and freelancers: contact details, contract type, availability and sometimes data needed for payroll. We apply data minimisation and set up access controls based on role and need, so that a production manager cannot automatically see contract and fee details.
For data that goes to payroll or the artist scheme, we record the legal basis and retention period for each data flow, in line with the GDPR. For co-productions, we build in separation between organisations, so that a partner only sees what relates to the shared production.
Technically, we build to OWASP security standards, with encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access, audit trails and monitoring. More about our approach: information security policy and vulnerability disclosure policy.
- GDPR-compliant processing and data minimisation
- Data separation between co-producers
- Contract and fee details behind separate access controls
- Documented retention periods for each data flow
- Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest
- Role-based access and least privilege
- Complete audit logging of access and changes
- Built to the OWASP standards
Frequently asked questions about performing arts software
Answers to the questions we most often receive about custom software for companies, producers and festivals.
Performing arts software supports the work behind the production: repertoire and production planning, casting and cast allocation, rehearsal and room schedules, tour planning with appointments per venue, technical riders, equipment management, rights registration and accountability reporting. Ticket sales are not part of this; that is ticketing, a separate system that we do integrate with.
No, and that is deliberate. Ticketing is a discipline of its own with its own payment and venue seating logic. We build the production and touring side and integrate with your ticketing platform, so attendance figures and performances flow into your accountability reporting without you selling tickets twice.
With a buy-out, the venue pays a fixed fee for the production and keeps the box office takings. With a sharing deal, the venue and the company split the takings according to an agreed formula, often with a threshold and sometimes with a guaranteed minimum. In practice, hybrid arrangements also occur, and it is precisely those that we want the software to record correctly.
Yes. For each production, we record which works were performed and which makers are attached to them, so that you can submit a well-founded report to Buma/Stemra for authors' rights and to Sena for neighbouring rights. The software provides the overview; the submission itself remains your responsibility.
We set the contract type for each employee, whether that is employment under a contract of service, self-employment as a freelancer, or deduction under the performing artists' scheme, and make sure the data payroll processing requires is available in the right form. Which scheme applies is something you decide together with your accountancy firm; the software carries it out.
Yes. Performances, attendance figures, distribution across municipalities and provinces, and the deployment of makers come from the system rather than being reconstructed afterwards. Which fields a fund requires varies by scheme, so we set up the exports so they can be adjusted when requirements change.
We build custom software. A repertory company, a producer and a festival work in fundamentally different ways, and generic event software usually forces a model on them that doesn't fit. After an intake conversation, we decide together which functionality matters most and in what order we develop it.
Yes. We regularly take over existing applications, even when another party built them. We review the architecture, integrations, authorisation model and security, document the setup and draw up improvement proposals. We can then extend, integrate or modernise step by step.
Ready to build your performing arts software?
Tell us how your production process runs and where it gets stuck: in planning, on tour, with riders or in accountability reporting. We are happy to help you think through the production model, the appointment structure and the integration with your ticketing and administration. In a no-obligation first conversation you will get a clear picture of the possibilities.