Belgian startup Bookr.fm started life as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform built for festival bookers, but now it is evolving into an even-smarter AI-infused service.
Founder Alex Stevens, who is on the longlist for the 2025 Music Ally NEXT International Entrepreneur of the Year award, started developing Bookr during his 23-year stint as artistic director of the Dour Festival.
“Back then, I was constantly frustrated by the lack of proper tools to support the complexity of booking decisions,” he tells Music Ally.
“Bookr helps programmers combine their artistic instincts with data-driven insights. Everything is centralised in one place: artist tracking, team collaboration, offers, budgets, deal memos, and a connected network of live professionals.”
The pitch – productivity tool Notion “but made for the live music industry” – has already won over a number of Stevens’ former peers in the festivals sector.
“So far, 40 festivals have used Bookr.fm during our beta phase, and we’ve processed over 885,000 artist profiles. Teams have already confirmed more than 1,600 shows using the platform,” he says.
“It’s become clear that people in the live music space are craving tools that honour both their artistic instincts and the operational complexity of their work.”
This is where AI technologies will take a key role in Bookr’s next moves in 2025, which Stevens says are about “evolving from tool to intelligent assistant”.
“We’re preparing to launch Bookr V2, with a smarter AI layer that understands each team’s taste, constraints, and vision. And of course, we’re actively raising funds to scale up and build a small but mighty team to carry this vision forward,” he says.
The biggest lesson so far from Bookr’s clients? “Realising just how much the industry still depends on spreadsheets and gut instinct — and how eager people are for a new generation of tools.”
Stevens elaborates. “I used to think tech had to be disruptive to be valuable, but I’ve come to see that true innovation here means supporting and amplifying human intuition, not replacing it.”
The International Entrepreneur of the Year award, in association with UMG Digital Innovation, will culminate at Music Ally NEXT 2025, our conference in London on 17 June. Find out more about the event here.
