Hire a Musician in the UK: Costs by Act TypeA short index. Find your act type, see the cost, then go to the guide written for it
TL;DR: what it costs, and which guide you actually need
A solo acoustic act is £150 to £350, a duo £250 to £500, a 3 to 4-piece band £400 to £800, and a wedding or function band £800 to £1,800. The act type sets the number; the event type moves it.
This page routes you to the specific guide for your booking, and covers the parts that are the same whatever you hire: how to brief it, what the warning signs are, and how to get the same act back.
- £150-£350solo acoustic, two 45-minute sets
- £800-£1,800wedding or function band, evening reception
- £167.16the MU floor, per musician, up to 3 hours
- 3,696live UK fee observations behind these ranges
Fees from the GX Index, 3,696 live UK observations across nine weighted sources, net of commission. London runs 20-40% above. Floor from the Musicians Union.
"How much does it cost to hire a musician" has no single answer, because a solo guitarist for background music in a restaurant and a nine-piece function band at a wedding are not the same purchase. What follows is the range for each type, then the guide that goes deep on the one you actually need.
The figures come from the GX Index, which tracks 3,696 live UK fee observations across nine weighted sources, cross-checked against the Musicians Union national rate card. They are net take-home, so agency commission is already out of them. London runs roughly 20 to 40 per cent above these ranges. The union floor for comparison is the MU national gig rate.
What each act type costs
Find your act type, take the range as a sanity check on any quote you have been given, then follow the guide in the third column for the detail.
| Act type | Typical UK fee | The full guide |
|---|---|---|
| Solo acoustic, pub | £150-£350 | Pub and bar guide |
| 3-piece band, pub | £250-£500 | Pub and bar guide |
| Covers band | £400-£900 | Covers band guide |
| DJ | £200-£450 | DJ hire guide |
| Karaoke / live band karaoke | £300-£700 | Karaoke band guide |
| Function band, corporate | £800-£2,000 | Corporate event guide |
| Wedding band | £1,200-£2,500 | Wedding band guide |
What each act type costs, and where the full guide is
1. Which guide you need, by event
Four kinds of booking, four different numbers and lead times. Find yours, then follow the guide on the card for the detail that only applies to that one.
All the hire guides in one place
If your booking sits across two of these, start with the one closest to the venue type rather than the occasion.
2. What moves the price, whatever the act
How many people are in the act
The single biggest factor, and close to linear. Each additional musician is another fee, another car and another share of the same door, and none of them scale with the size of the room. A four-piece is not twice a duo because there are twice as many people on stage; it is twice a duo because there are twice as many people to pay, park and feed.
It moves the technical side too. Past three or four players you are usually into a bigger PA, a longer load-in and a stage that has to be a real stage rather than a corner. If your room is small, a duo who fill it properly will nearly always beat a five-piece who cannot.
What kind of event it is
The same four-piece costs more at a wedding than in a pub, and the act is not being opportunistic. A pub set is two 45s and home. A wedding is a full day on site, fixed timings set by somebody else, usually a learned first dance, often a DJ set between sets, and absolutely no margin for a bad night.
Corporate sits in between: shorter than a wedding, tighter than a pub, and priced on how much of the evening the act is responsible for. When you are comparing quotes, compare the hours and the obligations rather than the headline number. Most pub live music needs no separate entertainment licence under the Live Music Act, which is why the barrier is fee rather than paperwork.
When, and how far ahead
Saturdays and December cost more for the ordinary reason that everyone wants them, and a good act with a full diary can choose. The premium is usually around 20 per cent, sometimes more in the fortnight before Christmas.
Lead time cuts the other way. Pub gigs book two to six weeks out, festivals three to nine months, weddings six to twelve and sometimes eighteen for a peak summer Saturday. Booking inside those windows does not just cost more, it shrinks the list of acts who are free at all, which is the real cost. See how far in advance to book a band. If you are the venue rather than the booker, live music also engages PRS licensing.
The same booking, priced five ways
The factors above are why a quote moves. This is how far it moves: the same booking, changed one variable at a time, with the question that settles each one before you agree a fee.
| Change one thing | The same booking becomes | Ask the act |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing (the baseline) | £400 to £600 | What is included at that fee: PA, lights, travel? |
| Add a fifth musician | £500 to £750 | Is the fifth player a fixed share or a dep rate? |
| Move it to a Saturday in December | £520 to £800 | Do you hold December dates at a premium? |
| Move it to central London | £560 to £900 | Is congestion charge, parking and load-in included? |
| Make it a wedding, 6 months out | £1,200 to £2,000 | What does the fee cover: ceremony, drinks, DJ set? |
| Ask for it in 10 days time | £480 to £900, if anyone is free | What can you do at this notice, and at what fee? |
One booking, priced five ways. Baseline: a 4-piece covers band, two 45-minute sets, Friday in a Midlands pub, booked six weeks out. Ranges from the GX Index.
3. How to brief an act so you get a real quote
Most slow, vague booking conversations are caused by a first message that does not contain enough for anyone to answer. An act cannot quote against "how much for a band?", so they ask five questions, you answer over three days, and by then someone else has the date.
Put everything in the first message
Date, times, venue and town, the kind of event, roughly what you want them to play, and your budget or the range you are working to. Six lines. Being upfront about budget is not weakness, it saves both sides finding out at the end that you were never in the same bracket.
Then move quickly
Good acts get booked out for Saturdays and December months ahead. If you like someone, confirm rather than shortlisting five and deciding in a fortnight. The act you wanted is usually the one who took a firm offer while you were deciding.
Get it in writing, even at pub level
Not because anyone expects a dispute, but because "we agreed" is doing a lot of work otherwise. The eight things worth stating are in what to include in a UK gig contract, and the contract generator produces one free in about two minutes.
- Fix the date, the times and the budget range before you contact anyone.
- Shortlist two or three acts of the right type in your city.
- Send one message with everything in it, including the budget.
- Watch a live video rather than a studio recording.
- Confirm in writing: fee, set times, who brings the PA, cancellation.
- Send the venue details and load-in time a week ahead.
- Pay on the agreed date, without being chased.
4. Red flags when hiring
Most of these come down to the same thing: an act who cannot answer a straight question about their own work. None of them mean someone is dishonest, but each one is a reason to ask a second question before you commit a date to them.
No live video, anywhere
A studio recording tells you what a producer did. A phone clip from a real room tells you what you are hiring. In 2026 an act with no live footage at all is either very new, which is fine if you know it, or not treating the bookings seriously, which is not.
Vague about what they actually play
Flexibility is good, "we can do anything" is not an answer. An act should be able to tell you their usual set, their strongest forty minutes, and what they would play to a room that is not dancing yet.
A quote well under everyone else
The cheapest quote is the one most likely to become the expensive mistake, because the discount is usually paying for something: borrowed equipment, no backup plan, or someone who has not done many of these. If a quote comes in at half the range in the table above, ask what is included before you take it.
The three questions that surface all of it
Ask these before you commit a date. An act who answers all three quickly is an act who has done this a lot.
5. Working with the act on the night
Tell them about changes as they happen
Running late, a different room than planned, doors moved by half an hour. None of it is a problem if the act knows in time, and all of it is a problem at 19:45. A photo of the space is worth three messages describing it.
Let them read the room
You hired them for this. Requests are fine, but an act adjusting the set because the floor filled early is doing the job properly, not going off script. Micromanaging song by song is a service you can buy, and it costs more than a standard booking.
Pay on the agreed date
Nothing damages a booking relationship faster than a fee that has to be chased, and word travels quickly in a small circuit. Agree the method in advance rather than finding cash on the night. Getting paid as a musician in the UK is the same story from the other side.
6. Booking the same act again
The second booking with an act you already trust is the cheapest good night you will ever put on, and most organisers never get there because nobody asked.
Keep a short note after each one: how they were to deal with, whether the room stayed, what they needed. After three or four bookings you have a list of acts you can call rather than a search you have to run again. Good acts also know other good acts, so one reliable booking is usually worth two or three recommendations when you need a different style.
7. Where to book, whatever you need
Direct, with no commission
Search acts by city and date in the gig directory or through performer profiles, and message them directly. Check the fee against the GX Index first.
Through an agency
Worth the commission for a one-off high-stakes event, rarely worth it for a recurring night. We compared the models in the UK platform comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Annual refresh commitment
This guide was published on 5 April 2026 and is refreshed every April. fees move every year, so annual verification matters. We re-verify every reference, recommendation, and data point once a year. Next scheduled refresh: April 2027. If any claim is outdated before then, email support@gigxchange.app and we will update it within 24 hours.
