How it works

How the AI agent drafts a festival's smaller acts from what fans of the town's own venues like. Undercard drafts a shortlist with its evidence attached; the buyer makes every call.

The headliners' fans alone

For fans of Khruangbin and Japanese Breakfast, Qloo ranks Strange Ranger 16th among mid-size acts.

The fans of

  • Khruangbin
  • Japanese Breakfast

and no venue's fans yet

  1. 1st
  2. 2nd
  3. 3rd
  4. …
  5. 15th
  6. 16thStrange Ranger
  7. 17th

+ Neurolux's fans

Add the fans of Neurolux, one of Boise's music venues, and Qloo ranks Strange Ranger 9th: a climb of 7 places.

The AI agent's choices

Qloo listed 8 live-music places in Boise. The AI agent chose whose fans to read, in 19 Qloo calls. Here is how many acts each venue's fans lifted onto the whole lineup, mid-size and opening:

  • Knitting Factory Boiselifted none
  • Neurolux8 acts lifted
  • Visual Arts Collective (VAC)2 acts lifted

Qloo had no fan data for Knitting Factory Boise, so the agent read Neurolux. 8 acts come from that read.

  1. 1st
  2. 2nd
  3. 3rd
  4. …
  5. 8th
  6. 9thStrange Ranger↑7
  7. 10th
  8. …
  9. 15th
  10. 16thStrange Ranger was here
  11. 17th

The door check

To get on, an act passes three checks:

  1. It climbs at least 5 places with a town venue's fans, and at least 5 more than with a venue abroad of similar Qloo popularity.
  2. Its popularity is inside the tier's range.
  3. It shares two genres with the headliners.

Fans of any busy venue lift some acts; a venue abroad with similar Qloo popularity shows how much of the climb is this town's.

Strange Ranger passes all three. Its tier's range is 80–92 out of 100.

Sagebrush Sound · Boise

Strange Ranger

Mid-size act
with Neurolux's fans added

  • 22local lift
    bar 5    ↑7 with Neurolux's fans
    ↓15 abroad
  • 86/100popularity
  • RockIndie Rockshared with
    the headliners

Onto the poster

Of the acts that pass all three, the strongest Qloo match takes each slot first: Strange Ranger takes mid-size acts slot 1 of 4.

Sagebrush Sound

  • Khruangbin
  • Japanese Breakfast

Mid-size acts

  • Strange Ranger
  • The Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY
  • Knox Fortune
  • Christian Lee Hutson

Opening acts

  • Becca Mancari
  • Gold Fir
  • Twain
  • Cailin Russo
  • Bickle
  • Red Hearse

Who does what

The AI agent plans the Qloo calls, Qloo knows the taste, and a fixed rule picks the acts. The buyer makes every call.

  • Sagebrush Sound · crew

    The AI agent

    Plans the 19 Qloo calls

    Chooses which venues to read, and in what order

  • Sagebrush Sound · crew

    Qloo

    Knows the taste

    Ranks the acts each crowd likes, with and without a venue's fans

  • Sagebrush Sound · crew

    The rule

    Picks the acts

    The three checks, then the strongest Qloo match for each slot

Check a shortlist against a town's venue fans

What was tested

  • Shown244 of 290244 of the 290 acts Undercard 1.0 drafted (its bills of 17 and 18 October) climbed at least 5 places more with the town venue that put them on the bill than with a music venue abroad of similar Qloo popularity; the bills on show now hold only acts that pass that test.Evidence, section 37
  • Partly shown20 of 30real festivals where the acts booked showed more lift from the town's venues than random acts of their tier; another country's venues did it at 18.Evidence, section 34
  • Not shown3 vs 11At 33 real festivals, Undercard's shortlists held 3 of the acts the festivals actually booked; the AI model alone held 11. Neither test bar was met.
    How we tested

    All three shortlists had the same headliners and the same brief, and a hit is any act on the festival's lineup except its headliners. 6 of the model's 11 hits are acts outside the fee ranges Undercard is given; inside them, the model held 5, Undercard 3 and Undercard with another country's venues 2. The model may also recall real lineups from its training. Asked for an undercard in 29 towns (section 31), the same model put 204 of the 268 picks Qloo found above the top of those fee ranges. Against Undercard with another country's venues, Undercard won 3 festivals to 2, which doesn't meet that bar either.

    Evidence, section 38
The method

In all 29 checked towns, the AI agent drafted a full bill from the town's own venues, and every Qloo call is listed.

In the 2.0 re-runs of 28 October: 290 acts in 29 full bills, from 17 to 28 Qloo calls a build; 28 towns read two venues with fan data, and Bozeman one, the only one Qloo had fan data for there.

Across 29 towns, the model alone and Qloo share one act, in one town.

The evidence: every test with its result, limit and source, and five objections answered