Every Act Needs a Stage. Every Stage Needs an Act.
GigXchange is the UK's peer-to-peer live music booking platform — connecting 683 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.
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.
FindYou, looking for a stage
Every venue, promoter and agent on GigXchange sits on one live UK map across 71 cities. Filter to who you need, open a profile, and you already know the room before you ask.
OfferAn offer arrives
The Foundry sends a real offer — date, fee and the details — straight into your thread. Accept it, or counter, without leaving the conversation.
Agree the feeYou counter
Counter with your number and why. Up to 5 counter-offers each way, all tracked in one thread — so nobody forgets what was agreed, and you never have to haggle by voicemail.
SignYour terms, in writing
The moment you both agree, a proper UK booking contract is generated from the terms you settled — fee, times, cancellation — and signed by both sides in the app. No template hunting, no printer.
Secure itSecured before you travel
The venue pays a deposit through Stripe and it is held safely — not sitting in their account, not in ours to spend. The booking is confirmed, and you can plan the night knowing it is real.
Gig nightJust play
Times, contacts, set length and the venue details are all in the booking — on your phone, on the night. Turn up and play, instead of scrolling back through six weeks of messages.
PaidPaid without asking
Both sides mark the gig complete and the money is released to you — no invoice chasing, no five-week wait, no awkward follow-up. Then you both leave a review that follows you to the next booking.
GigXchangeMainstage
Find them on the map
Booker—Held safely—Performer—
Where the money isNothing to pay. Searching, browsing and messaging are free, forever.
Free to join, with no subscription and no listing fees. The only optional charge is protected payment —
5% of the booking — which is what holds that deposit safely. See the full walkthrough.
See it in action
A look inside GigXchange Mainstage — the members app where artists, venues, agents and promoters manage bookings, messaging, events and payments. Switch between the iOS app, Android app and web app, then tap any shot to enlarge.
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
Frequently Asked Questions
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 683 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.
