Every Act Needs a Stage. Every Stage Needs an Act.
GigXchange is the UK's peer-to-peer live music booking platform — connecting 766 artists, venues, agents and promoters across 71 UK cities. Direct bookings, no middlemen, free to use. Sign up in 5 minutes.
I'm Naumaan — a rock guitarist and the engineer who builds this platform, end to end. I've gigged the UK circuit since 2009, covers and originals, so I know exactly where live music leaks time and money: the message chains, the middlemen, the invoice that never comes.
GigXchange is what happens when the builder has lived the problem — find the gig, book it direct, get it in writing, get paid properly, all in one place, and improving every single week. Sign up, try it, break it, tell me what's missing: the community steers what gets built next.
Thanks for stopping by — I'd love to hear from you.
Naumaan — Founder, GigXchange
What you can count on
Rock and metal guitarist — covers and originals, since 2009
The whole platform built in-house — search, bookings, contracts, payments
Every feature here started life as a real gig problem
Built in the open — updates ship most weeks
Want a feature? Ask — I build what the community wants
GigXchange is a UK marketplace for live music: artists, venues, agents and promoters find each other, agree the gig, and get paid — all in one place, with no agency taking a cut in the middle. Three reels, if you’d rather watch than read — one from each side of the exchange: the artist, the venue, and the person booking the night.
Somebody said yes
0:47
0:00/0:00
Your room, not your inbox
0:42
0:00/0:00
One shot
0:40
0:00/0:00
Why grassroots music matters
Every act you have paid to see in an arena learned to hold a room somewhere small. Those rooms are closing.
78
UK grassroots venues stopped putting on live music in the year to July 2025venues stopped live music
The Music
Venue Trust Annual Report 2025 counted 78 UK grassroots venues that stopped
putting on live music in the year to July 2025 — 30 of them closed for good.
Roughly one every five days. These are the rooms where a first support slot happens, where an act
learns to hold an audience, and where a Tuesday night can still turn into something.
Booking fees, closures and rising costs are the industry's problem to fix. Ours is smaller and more
useful: make the gigs findable, keep the directories and tools free, and get the cost of
booking live music as low as it can go — so more nights get put on, and more people get out to
see them. That is what the gig directory, the venue directory and the open mic finder are for — and why none of it costs a venue
anything to appear in.
The quickest way to help is to go to something. See what’s on across the
UK — every city we cover, and what is on there this week.
A UK venue stops hosting live music every 5 days — and turning up is what keeps a room
open. Get a free weekly email of gigs near you. Unsubscribe any
time. Privacy.
How It Works
Booking a gig today means six Facebook groups and hoping, or handing an agency £45–60 of a £300 night, then five weeks chasing the invoice. Here’s the whole thing in one place instead: one real booking in seven steps, from first search to money in the bank, and exactly where your fee sits at every one. Pick your role and step through it.
How it works · GIGXCHANGE · UK live music
Book live music. Direct.
A UK peer-to-peer marketplace where artists, venues, agents, promoters and organisers deal with each other. No agency in the middle.
Free to join · Fee on confirmed bookings only · No subscriptions
Where the money goes
The middleman takes a quarter.
01
What agencies charge
15 to 25% of the artist's fee, on every booking, for the introduction.
02
What that costs a year
At 20% a full-time gigging artist works until 14 March for the agency. We call it Commission Freedom Day.
03
What it does to small rooms
A median pub gig pays £363 take-home. Add a markup and the pub is priced out, so the night goes to a playlist.
0–0%agency commission on the artist's fee
The booking was never the hard part. The maths was.
The other half of the problem
Most people have no middleman. Or a network.
01
The act with nobody to call
Great on stage, no agent, no promoter's number, no idea which pub in the next town books bands.
02
The room with nobody to book
A landlord who wants a Friday act and gets six Facebook groups, a cousin's mate and hope.
03
The organiser starting from zero
A wedding, a launch, a fortieth. Never booked a band, no one to ask, no way to compare.
A marketplace is a network you did not have to build. Every member is one message away, from day one.
0
Artists, venues, agents, promoters and organisers you can message today
0
UK cities with members on the map
0
Directory venues you can contact before they even join
The villain is the middleman. The bigger problem is having no one at all.
Who is on it
One marketplace. Five roles.
PLAY
Artists
Profiles with audio, video and verified reviews. Bands run theirs as a team.
HOST
Venues
Post gigs, browse acts, run more than one room with team invites.
Multi-act line-ups, events, tickets with QR scanning.
HIRE
Organisers
Anyone booking music for their own event: weddings, parties, corporate.
Step one
Find each other in seconds.
Explore
Search every role.
Artists, venues, agents and promoters by genre, city, budget and availability. Compare up to four profiles side by side.
Live Music Map
See who is near you.
One interactive UK map that runs across Explore, the gig directory and every venue, open-mic and profile page.
Smart Match
Or let it find you.
Recommendations of the best-fit artists or venues for what you need, or post a gig and let matching acts apply.
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Members across 71 UK cities
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Grassroots venues · 91 cities
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Verified open mics
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Live gigs in the directory
The booking journey
Seven steps. Zero paperwork you write.
Either side
Request
Date, fee, deposit and any special terms. Sent from the chat.
Both
Negotiate
Accept, counter or decline. Everything in one thread.
Auto
Contract
Generated from the agreed terms. Both sides e-sign.
Stripe
Deposit
Held by the platform, not the other party. Visible as secured.
Gig night
Perform
Both sides confirm completion in the app.
Day 5
Payout
Released automatically. Lands in 2 to 3 working days.
Both
Review
Two-way, verified, on both profiles.
Dispute in the five-day window pauses the payout. GigXchange mediates before any funds move.
Enforceable
A real contract, not a DM.
Eight standard UK clauses: date, fee, deposit, cancellation, equipment, set times. Binding under the Electronic Communications Act 2000.
Protected
The deposit sits with Stripe.
PCI DSS Level 1. The artist sees it is secured before load-in. The venue knows the act is committed.
Yours
Reputation that follows you.
Reviews after every gig, on both sides. Import the ones you already earned off-platform.
Where it happens
Every booking is a conversation.
The old way email · agency
Hi, are you free Sat 14 Nov? What do you charge?
Thanks for your enquiry. I've forwarded it to the agent, who will come back to you with a quote.
Any news?
Six days. Three people. No answer.
GigXchange chat one thread per booking
Sat 14 Nov, two 45s, £400?
£450 with PA. Send it over.
Booking offerSat 14 Nov · £450 · 2 × 45 min
AcceptCounterDecline
Accepted. Contract is in the thread.
Offer, contract and deposit, all in the chat.
One offer creates everything
Pending booking
Push + email alert
Offer card in Messages
Contract draft
Stripe deposit request
One message. Everything else follows.Nothing to chase, nothing to re-type.
Share audio, agree the set, negotiate the fee. The person you are talking to is the person you are booking.
What it costs
Free to use. 5% for protection.
Traditional agencycommission on the artist's fee
15 – 25%
GigXchange protecteddeposit held by Stripe
5%
GigXchange, settle privatelycash or bank transfer
0%
0%25%
Join, build a profile, browse, message
Free
Contracts, invoices, reviews
Free
Subscriptions, listing fees
None
Artist keeps
92 – 100% of the agreed fee
> booking · Sat 14 Nov · £450 · protected
✔ contract signed · both parties · 41s
✔ deposit held · Stripe · PCI DSS Level 1
✔ gig complete · both sides confirmed
⟳ five-day window · no dispute raised
✔ payout released · day 5 · to artist's bank
→ reviews open · both profiles
The fee is optional and the artist sets the price. Venues see real market rates before they ask.
The GX Index
Priced by evidence.
Every fee on the platform sits next to the UK market rate: real take-home figures by city, band size and event type, refreshed monthly and published free under CC BY 4.0.
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Fee observations
p25–p90
Percentiles per cell
0
Cities, monthly reports
Nobody has to guess what a Saturday in Leeds is worth.
Pub · solomedian take-home
£250
Pub · 3 to 4 piecemedian take-home
£350
Pub · duomedian take-home
£375
Wedding · 3 to 4 piecemedian take-home
£990
Corporate · 5+median take-home
£1,329
£0£1,329
The rest of the job
Everything around the gig.
Setlists
Song Bank to stage.
Import your repertoire, drag a setlist together, print it or export a poster.
Stage plots
Drawn, not described.
Drag-and-drop plot and input list to send to the venue and the engineer.
EPK
A press kit with a URL.
Music, photos, reviews and rate card on a public page you can send anywhere.
Events
Line-ups and tickets.
Multi-act events, QR ticket scanning, one-tap push to Eventbrite where the venue sells there.
Classifieds
Find each other, not just gigs.
Musicians wanted and available. Every ad states the pay, rehearsals, commitment.
Band teams
One profile, every member.
Each member gets a login and a role. Nobody shares a password.
Multi-site venues
Every room, one account.
Operators with more than one venue invite their team and manage them together.
Agent rosters
Pitch and track.
Manage a roster, pitch venues, see commission per artist. One act or a hundred.
Plainly
What GIGXCHANGE is not.
It is
A direct line to every artist, venue and organiser on it
A contract, a held deposit and a review on every booking
Open to anyone, with no audition and no waiting list
A published rate index anyone can quote
vs
It is not
An agency. Nobody books on your behalf
Exclusive. Use it alongside anything else
A production company. Gear and crew are between you
A gatekeeper. Reviews and market competition decide, not us
Your fee, your terms, your relationship. The platform holds the deposit and the paperwork, and stays out of the way.
Where it runs
Every device a musician uses.
iPhone · iPad
App Store
Native app, iOS 15 and up. Push notifications for offers, messages and payouts.
Android
Google Play
Same account, same bookings, same chat.
Any browser
gigxchange.app/app
The full platform on the web, installable to your home screen.
No signal backstage
Works offline.
Messages and actions queue when you lose signal and sync when you are back.
Stripe · PCI DSS Level 1ICO registered · ZC132441UK GDPR compliantNo ads. Your data is never soldOne account across every device
Start
Book direct.
Free to join. A fee only on confirmed bookings, and only if you want the protection. Your profile is live in five minutes.
Click or tap the deck to advance. The corner button opens it full screen.
See it in action
A look inside GigXchange Mainstage — the members app where artists, venues, agents and promoters manage bookings, messaging, events and payments. Scroll: the phone follows you through the app.
Your dashboard
0101 / 06
Your dashboard
The moment you log in, everything that matters is in front of you — what's booked, what you've earned, and what needs you next. No digging through tabs.
Bookings at a glanceConfirmed, pending and upcoming gigs in one view — so nothing slips through the cracks.
Earnings, trackedSee deposits held securely and payouts released, with a running total you can trust.
Live activity feedNew messages, offers and event updates surface the second they happen — you're never the last to know.
0202 / 06
Explore the scene
Find the right artists, venues and open gigs across the UK from one place — filtered by what actually matters to you: location, genre, date and budget.
Search that fits youFilter by role, city, genre and availability to surface only the people and gigs worth your time.
Smart Match suggestionsThe strongest matches rise to the top, so the right connection finds you — not just the loudest.
Open gigs, liveBrowse gigs that need filling and apply in a tap — no cold outreach, no gatekeepers.
0303 / 06
Bookings, end to end
Offer, negotiate and confirm a gig in a single thread — every date, fee and deposit agreed in one place and held to.
One thread, start to finishThe whole deal lives in one conversation — no lost emails, no he-said-she-said.
Negotiate with clarityCounter-offers, dates and fees are structured and tracked, so both sides always know where they stand.
Held securelyThe deposit is held safely until the gig is done — performers get paid, bookers get peace of mind.
0404 / 06
Messaging
Agree the details before you commit. Direct, real-time conversations with venues, artists, agents and promoters — with bookings built right in.
Talk first, book secondSort the awkward questions — sound, timings, fee — before anything's signed.
Bookings inside the chatTurn a conversation into a confirmed offer without ever leaving the thread.
Share availability & filesSend your calendar, riders and posters in-line, so everyone's working from the same page.
0505 / 06
Your profile & EPK
Your shop window to the whole UK scene — a profile and electronic press kit that does the selling for you, on the public web and inside the app.
Built to be foundYour profile is a public page engineered for search and AI discovery — so people find you without you chasing them.
A press kit that travelsMusic, photos, stats and past gigs in one shareable EPK that makes booking you an easy yes.
Always currentUpdate once and it's live everywhere — no stale links, no outdated one-sheets.
0606 / 06
Setlists
Build a polished setlist in minutes and share it with the room — songs, keys and running order, ready for the night.
Drag-and-drop running orderReorder songs in a tap and see the whole set take shape, page by page.
Share it anywhereSend a clean, branded setlist to the band, the venue or the sound engineer in one tap.
Reuse and adaptSave sets per act or venue and tweak the running order for the next gig without starting over.
Your dashboard
01 / 06
Your dashboard
The moment you log in, everything that matters is in front of you — what's booked, what you've earned, and what needs you next. No digging through tabs.
Bookings at a glanceConfirmed, pending and upcoming gigs in one view — so nothing slips through the cracks.
Earnings, trackedSee deposits held securely and payouts released, with a running total you can trust.
Live activity feedNew messages, offers and event updates surface the second they happen — you're never the last to know.
Explore the scene
02 / 06
Explore the scene
Find the right artists, venues and open gigs across the UK from one place — filtered by what actually matters to you: location, genre, date and budget.
Search that fits youFilter by role, city, genre and availability to surface only the people and gigs worth your time.
Smart Match suggestionsThe strongest matches rise to the top, so the right connection finds you — not just the loudest.
Open gigs, liveBrowse gigs that need filling and apply in a tap — no cold outreach, no gatekeepers.
Bookings, end to end
03 / 06
Bookings, end to end
Offer, negotiate and confirm a gig in a single thread — every date, fee and deposit agreed in one place and held to.
One thread, start to finishThe whole deal lives in one conversation — no lost emails, no he-said-she-said.
Negotiate with clarityCounter-offers, dates and fees are structured and tracked, so both sides always know where they stand.
Held securelyThe deposit is held safely until the gig is done — performers get paid, bookers get peace of mind.
Messaging
04 / 06
Messaging
Agree the details before you commit. Direct, real-time conversations with venues, artists, agents and promoters — with bookings built right in.
Talk first, book secondSort the awkward questions — sound, timings, fee — before anything's signed.
Bookings inside the chatTurn a conversation into a confirmed offer without ever leaving the thread.
Share availability & filesSend your calendar, riders and posters in-line, so everyone's working from the same page.
Your profile & EPK
05 / 06
Your profile & EPK
Your shop window to the whole UK scene — a profile and electronic press kit that does the selling for you, on the public web and inside the app.
Built to be foundYour profile is a public page engineered for search and AI discovery — so people find you without you chasing them.
A press kit that travelsMusic, photos, stats and past gigs in one shareable EPK that makes booking you an easy yes.
Always currentUpdate once and it's live everywhere — no stale links, no outdated one-sheets.
Setlists
06 / 06
Setlists
Build a polished setlist in minutes and share it with the room — songs, keys and running order, ready for the night.
Drag-and-drop running orderReorder songs in a tap and see the whole set take shape, page by page.
Share it anywhereSend a clean, branded setlist to the band, the venue or the sound engineer in one tap.
Reuse and adaptSave sets per act or venue and tweak the running order for the next gig without starting over.
01 / 06
Purpose-Built for Live Music
The UK platform where musicians, venues, agents and promoters book gigs, get discovered, and grow their audience — not another generic booking form
Direct Booking
No Gatekeepers
Hire a band direct from the artist — free to use, 5% only for protected payments. Any musician can approach any venue and vice versa. Book live music across 71 cities without middlemen or agency fees.
All-in-One
One Place for Everything
Bookings, contracts, payments, messaging, and your calendar — all in one dashboard. No more spreadsheets, DMs, and email chains.
Trust
Verified Reputation
Public profile with real two-way reviews, star ratings, and booking history. Build credibility that follows you — plus marketing tools to grow your audience.
AI-Powered
Smart Matching
AI-powered recommendations based on genre, location, budget, and style. The right artist meets the right stage — automatically.
Discovery
Gig Directory
Browse 8,300+ gigs near you and search by city, genre, date, and fee. Apply directly to opportunities — no agents required (unless you want one).
Tailored Workflows
Built for Every Role
Dedicated dashboards and tools for Artists, Venues, Agents, and Promoters. Each role gets a tailored workflow designed for how they actually work.
Built For Everyone
Whether you're a solo artist, a promoter running 5 gigs a month, or a 500-cap venue
Artists
Find gigs, get booked, and grow your audience. Promote your sound to UK venues with a rich profile, apply to open slots, and build a reputation that follows you.
Book live bands and promote your venue to UK musicians. Post gigs, browse local performers, fill empty nights, and build a loyal following — no agency fees.
Manage and promote your artist roster, negotiate live music bookings, and track commissions — all from one UK dashboard that puts your artists in front of venues.
Seriously. Not a single "Jamie R., Solo Artist, Manchester" in sight.
We could have made some up. We didn't.
This is where most platforms put three glowing quotes from "Jamie R." and "Sarah K." with stock photo avatars. You've seen them. You've never believed them.
We're new. We don't have hundreds of testimonials yet — because we'd rather earn real ones from you. GigXchange is being built with real artists, real venues, and real feedback. No invented quotes, no borrowed credibility.
Join early, help shape the platform, and when this section has real names in it — yours could be one of them.
Be one of the first — your feedback writes this section
Naumaan, Founder
Yes, a real person. You can email me — founder@gigxchange.app
GigXchange is a UK peer-to-peer live music marketplace where artists, venues, agents and promoters find each other, book direct, message in-app, sign contracts and get paid. It combines public profiles, live gig listings, venue data, rate benchmarks and free booking tools in one place.
GigXchange is built for the UK live music ecosystem: artists looking for gigs, venues booking performers, agents managing rosters and promoters building lineups. Artists can find opportunities through the Gig Directory and Open Mic Finder; venues can browse profiles, compare acts and manage bookings directly.
Artists can create a free profile, browse the Gig Directory for 8,300+ UK listings, use the Open Mic Finder to find grassroots stage time across 1,200+ verified venues, check city hubs for local opportunities and use Free Tools like the Setlist Builder, Rate Calculator and Booking Contract Generator.
Venues can browse public profiles by role, location, genre and budget, then use the Compare tool to view up to 4 acts side by side. Artist profiles include media, fees, genres, reviews and location, helping venues shortlist performers before messaging or sending a booking request.
Agents can add existing artists to their roster, manage bookings, availability and communications from one dashboard, and set their own commission rate per artist. Agent accounts scale to any roster size. Active agents can be featured in Member Spotlight with a press-kit PDF and editorial profile. Use the Venue Outreach Templates to pitch acts to venues.
Promoters can post gig opportunities with date, location, genre and fee range, then receive applications from matching artists. Browse profiles and the Gig Directory to scout talent, message acts directly, and manage multi-act bookings from the promoter dashboard. Contracts and payments are handled on platform.
The Gig Directory lists 8,300+ UK live music events by city, date, genre and venue. A grassroots filter shows only small-venue and independent events. Artists can also list their own gigs for free via the “List your gig” modal on any directory page.
The Grassroots Venue Directory maps 2,600+ independent music venues across the UK with capacity, genre focus, location and links to upcoming gigs at each venue. Venues can claim and update their own listing for free. Artists can use it to find venues in their genre and city.
The Open Mic Finder is the UK’s largest free open mic directory with 1,200+ manually verified venues across every major city. Each listing includes the venue name, address, genre focus and typical night of the week. City hub pages group listings by area with radar scores ranking each city’s scene.
GigXchange publishes Free Tools for UK live music bookings: the Rate Calculator for city-level fee benchmarks, the Booking Contract Generator for professional gig agreements in under a minute, and the Setlist Builder for drag-and-drop set planning. All free, no account required.
The GX Index is GigXchange’s UK live music rate benchmark, built from 4,000+ verified fee observations across the UK. Artists can use it to price gigs confidently, while venues, agents and promoters can compare realistic fee ranges before negotiating. All figures are disaggregated into net and gross with commission separated.
GigXchange is free to join with no monthly subscription — creating a profile, browsing listings, messaging and the free tools cost nothing for any role. The only charge is optional: protected payment (5% of the booking), where the deposit is held safely until the gig is done. Settle privately and there is no charge at all. Benchmark fees with the GX Index.
Search, message, send a booking request, agree terms and sign a digital contract — all on platform. Payments go through Stripe: the deposit is held securely and released automatically 5 days after the gig — money typically lands in your bank 2–3 working days later. The Booking Contract Generator also lets you create a UK live music agreement outside of a platform booking. See the full booking walkthrough for every step.
Yes. GigXchange is built for UK users, follows UK GDPR principles, uses 256-bit TLS on all traffic and relies on Stripe (PCI DSS Level 1) for card handling. GigXchange never sees or stores your payment information. Users can control notification preferences in-app. Full details in our privacy policy.
Your Next Gig Is Waiting
Join 766 members on the UK's peer-to-peer live music marketplace. Open Alpha — free to join while we build this together.
I'm building GigXchange because the UK live music scene deserves better tools. Sign up, try it, break it, tell me what's missing — your feedback shapes everything we build next.
Did you know?The UK is one of the world’s largest music markets, behind only the US and Japan.
