How we rate tribute acts: Tribify Rating, Fan score, Press score and credentials

A tribute act lives or dies on one question: how close do they get? Only people who were in the room can really answer that. So every rating on Tribify comes from someone who saw the show: our own staff, fans, or published critics. Alongside them we show the credentials an act has earned.

Tribify Rating: what our team thought

The Tribify Rating is the average score, out of 5, from Tribify staff who saw the show. They use exactly the same form and scorecard as fans, and their reviews appear in their own section on the act's page, marked "Tribify team". It's shown from the first staff review, and it never counts towards the Fan score.

Our rules for staff ratings:

• Staff only rate shows they've watched in person, from start to finish.
• If we were given free tickets or hospitality by the act, venue or promoter, the review says so.
• Staff don't rate acts they work with, manage or are related to.
• Acts can't see a rating before it's published, and can't have one changed or removed. Paying for a profile makes no difference.

Fan score: what the audience thought

The Fan score is the share of fans who rated the show 4 or 5 stars. We show a percentage once at least 5 fans have rated an act, so one very happy or very unhappy fan can't decide it. Before that, you'll see the plain count, like "3 of 3 fans loved it", marked "early days".

Reviews sent from our QR cards at the venue, or from the link we send after the gig, are marked "Was there" and count double, because we know those fans were in the room. Every act's page also shows the spread of ratings from 5 stars down to 1, and the tribute scorecard breaks the show into five parts:

• Like the real thing: how close the whole experience gets to the original artist.
• Vocals: whether the singer sounds the part.
• Look: costumes, hair, instruments and stage presence.
• Atmosphere: the energy in the room, and whether you were on your feet.
• Value: whether the night was worth the ticket price.

Press score: what the critics said

We collect reviews from newspapers, magazines and established music and theatre websites, and record each reviewer's overall verdict: positive, mixed or negative. Every review is shown with a short quote and a link to read it in full, and we never leave a review out because it's critical.

Once an act has at least 3 published reviews, we show a Press score: the share that were positive. Below that, you'll see the reviews themselves without a percentage.

Credentials: what an act has earned

Credentials are achievements we can link to a source. An act can earn:

• Years on the road: 10+, 20+ or 30+ years performing.
• Arena act or concert-hall act: for acts that regularly play venues of that size.
• Endorsed by the original artist: when a member of the original band, or their estate, has praised or booked the act.
• Award winner: for a major title, such as a TV talent show or an official estate contest.
• Major festival act: for a confirmed slot at a festival like Glastonbury.
• Rebooked by a venue, or a venue "regular": when a venue has booked the act in two or more different years. Venues only rebook acts that sell tickets.
• Sell-out shows: when a venue, ticket page or published report confirms a show sold out.
• Busiest on tour: the act with the most upcoming dates among tributes to the same artist.

Credentials only ever add up. An act with none yet hasn't done anything wrong: it just means we haven't found a source. Acts can send us evidence, and we check it before it counts.

Legends, established acts and rising stars

Every act we've checked is placed at one of three levels, so you can pick the kind of night you're after. Like credentials, levels come only from facts we can source, never from our opinion, and nobody can pay to change one.

• Legend: 20 or more years on the road and regularly playing concert halls or arenas, or endorsed by the original artist.
• Established: a proven act whose history we've checked against a source.
• Rising star: performing for under 5 years. These are the acts to catch before everyone else does.

Levels say how far an act has come, not how good the show is: that's what the Fan score is for. An act we haven't checked yet has no level, and we check more every week. You can filter by level on the Acts A–Z page and on every artist's page.

What we never do

• Nothing can be bought. Acts can pay for a Showcase, Spotlight or Headliner profile, but paid spots are labelled "Featured" and have no effect on any rating, score, credential or level.
• Acts can't remove reviews, from our staff, fans or the press.
• We don't edit what fans write or change their ratings. We check new fan reviews every day and hold back only spam, abuse, or posts with links or contact details.
• Social media following is shown on an act's page as a measure of reach, but it never counts towards a score.
• We never make anything up. Research tools help us find sources, but every credential and every press review links to where we found it, only fans set the Fan score, and only staff who saw the show set the Tribify Rating.

Booking suggestions

Our Book an act page suggests acts for venues, festivals and parties. It ranks them only by their ratings (the average of whichever of the Tribify Rating, Fan score and Press score an act has), then by credentials. Being on a paid plan never moves an act up the list. Tribify doesn't charge venues or event organisers anything: we're simply a guide.

How to add your rating

Find the act on Tribify and use the "Rate the night" form on their page, or start from our rate a show page. Many venues and acts also have our QR cards on the tables. It takes about 30 seconds.