GigXchange: Our First 90 Days90 days ago, one person signed up. Today there are 406 of us across 74 UK cities. Here is the honest account of where we are, what we got wrong, and what the next 90 days hold.

Ninety days ago, on 22 March 2026, the first person signed up to GigXchange. One profile. I remember refreshing the dashboard to check it was real. Today there are 406 of us, across 74 UK cities, and I wanted to mark the moment honestly rather than dress it up. This is a founder update: the good, the rough, and the plan.

Where this started

I have been gigging since 2009. For most of those 17 years, getting booked meant cold emails, Facebook messages into the void, and fees agreed on the back of a setlist. The people who got the work were often the people who already knew someone. That gatekeeping is the thing I wanted to break.

So GigXchange is one place where artists, venues, agents, and promoters can find each other, agree a deal, and get paid, without the chaos and without needing an inside contact. It is peer to peer on purpose. The whole point is that the booking happens directly between the two people who actually want it to happen.

The numbers, honestly

406 members in 90 days, with 79 joining in the last 30, is real momentum for a solo-built open alpha. 323 of those are artists, and 356 members now carry a verified badge. People are signing up, building profiles, and coming back. That is the scoreboard that matters this early: not polish, not page count, but whether real people are here and active.

Here is the honest part. The community is artist-heavy right now, and a booking marketplace needs both sides. More venues is the single biggest thing that turns these sign-ups into actual booked gigs, and that is exactly where the next 90 days go. I would rather tell you that plainly than quote a vanity number and hope you do not notice the gap.

The free tools you can use today

Whether or not you ever book through us, there are tools here that are useful on their own. That is deliberate. A platform should earn its place by being helpful first. For the running log of what ships each month, the platform updates have the detail.

All three are free and need no account. The Rate Calculator turns 3,979 anonymised fee data points into a straight answer on what a gig in your city pays. The Gig Directory tracks 6,817 live grassroots gigs across 52 cities, and the Open Mic Finder lists 1,957 open mics for anyone chasing stage time. The full app is also on the Google Play Store, with real bookings and payments running through Stripe.

The next 90 days

The plan is narrow on purpose. One person cannot do ten things well at once, so here is what actually gets built next, in order of how much it matters.

1. More venues: the priority. I am focused on getting UK venues on board so artists have somewhere to be booked. Both sides of the market have to be active for any of this to work.
2. Push notifications: booking requests and messages on your lock screen, so you never lose a gig because you forgot to open the app.
3. Smart Match: the engine that puts the right acts in front of the right venues automatically, instead of everyone having to search.
4. iOS App Store: the same native app for iPhone and iPad, to follow the Android release.
5. Free to join, with a private-settle option: through the open alpha and the beta that follows, joining, the tools, and messaging stay free, and you can always settle a booking privately off the platform if you prefer.

How you can help

This is the part where I ask for something. GigXchange grows when the people already here pull one more person in. If you want this to exist, these five things move the needle more than anything I can do alone.

1. Complete your profile: a finished, verified profile is far easier to book. Add photos, your genres, and your availability.
2. Invite one venue: the place you played last month, your local, the room that always needs acts. One introduction is worth more than a hundred cold sign-ups.
3. List a gig: add a gig to the Gig Directory so the whole community can find it.
4. Tell one bandmate: share GigXchange with someone who is still chasing gigs the hard way.
5. Send honest feedback: tell me what is broken or missing. I read all of it, and most of the roadmap above came from members.

Whether you are an artist chasing gigs, a venue looking for talent, an agent running a roster, or a promoter filling events, there is a place for you here, and it is free to claim. Ninety days in, this is still the very beginning.

To everyone who signed up in the first 90 days: thank you. You took a chance on something rough and unfinished, built by one person, and you are the reason there is a second 90 days to plan at all. Let us go and book some gigs.

Annual refresh commitment

This guide was published on 19 June 2026 and is refreshed every June. Member counts, tools, and roadmap change as we ship, so we verify and update this post regularly, so annual verification matters. We re-verify every reference, recommendation, and data point once a year. Next scheduled refresh: June 2027. If any claim is outdated before then, email support@gigxchange.app and we will update it within 24 hours.