Live Music for Every Kind of VenuePubs, hotels, care homes, clubs, holiday parks and boats: what changes for each, and the booking page for yours
One booking page for every kind of venue
GigXchange now has a booking page for each kind of UK venue that puts on live music: pubs, hotels, care homes, social clubs, holiday parks and boats. Each page carries that venue’s own licence rule with its official source, the formats that work there, and live GX Index fees where they exist. 980+ artists are on the platform, and every booking comes with a contract you both sign.
Pick your venue below, or see everything a venue account does on GigXchange for venues.
I have played UK rooms since 2009, and the thing nobody tells you is how different they all are. A pub books a Saturday band. A care home books a singalong at two in the afternoon. A social club has a committee and a certificate, not a licence. A boat party cannot let the band leave until it docks. Same job (get a good act in the room) and completely different rules.
So each kind of venue now has its own page, written for the person who books it. Not a generic “book a band” page with the word swapped: each one answers the questions that venue actually asks, with the official source next to every rule. This guide is the map: what changes from one venue to the next, and where to go for yours.
1. Live music by venue: what changes for each
Pubs and bars: the 8am to 11pm rule
Most pubs never need an entertainment licence for live music. Under the Live Music Act, premises licensed to sell alcohol can host amplified live music between 8am and 11pm for an audience of 500 or fewer. Playing or performing music in public still needs TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS, which is copyright rather than permission to hold the event. A one-off event outside your licence can use a temporary events notice: fewer than 500 people at all times, staff included.
What works: acoustic sets for a room that has never had music, a midweek open mic, a 3 to 4 piece with its own PA for the weekend. The pub page shows live GX Index pub medians for a solo act, a duo and a band against the Musicians’ Union minimum (£167.16 per musician for up to 3 hours, April 2026), plus sections for restaurants and dining rooms, pub festivals and Christmas. Live music for pubs and bars.
Hotels: weddings, function rooms and the bar
A hotel meets three rules. The bar, if it is licensed for alcohol, works like a pub. A meeting or function room your premises licence does not cover is still a workplace, where amplified live music needs no entertainment licence between 8am and 11pm for 500 or fewer. And a private wedding for invited guests is not licensable at all unless guests are charged for the entertainment to make a profit (Licensing Act guidance, 16.15). Paying the musicians does not change that.
What works: a solo act or duo on the same night each week in the bar, a pianist or string player for dinner, a ceremony act and an evening band for a wedding, a function band for corporate events. The hotel page shows wedding and corporate fees beside bar sets, against the MU functions rate (£222.88 per musician for up to 4 hours, April 2026). Live music for hotels.
Care homes: a workplace, and a daytime audience
A care home is a workplace, so amplified live music needs no entertainment licence there between 8am and 11pm for an audience of 500 or fewer (Licensing Act guidance, 16.6 and 16.33), and unamplified music needs none in those hours anywhere. Ask PPL PRS which music licence tariff applies to your home. On visiting entertainers, GOV.UK says the check a role can have depends on the role, and a basic DBS check costs £20 where a higher one does not apply. Your home’s own policy decides.
What works: singalong sets with songs residents know, reminiscence music from the decades they grew up in, and seasonal shows. The GX Index has no care-home fees yet, so the page gives you the live gig rate calculator rather than a borrowed figure. Entertainers for care homes.
Social and members’ clubs: the club certificate
A qualifying members’ club (GOV.UK names the Royal British Legion, working men’s clubs and rugby clubs) supplies alcohol under a club premises certificate, and that certificate counts like a pub licence for live music (Licensing Act guidance, 16.34). It covers members and their guests only. To open a night to the public, the club needs a premises licence or a temporary events notice. A club run for profit is a proprietary club and works under a premises licence, like a pub. Ask PPL PRS which tariff fits your club.
What works: the Saturday turn, tribute and covers nights, presentation nights at a cricket, rugby or golf club, and members’ private parties. The GX Index has no social-club figure yet, so the page shows the MU pubs-and-clubs minimum and the calculator. Entertainment for social clubs.
Holiday parks and resorts: the season and Martyn’s Law
A licensed clubhouse or bar on a park works like a pub for live music between 8am and 11pm for 500 or fewer. An outdoor stage or a show after 11pm needs the premises licence to cover it, or a temporary events notice for a one-off event. GOV.UK’s Martyn’s Law guidance lists holiday parks with hotels and hostels among the premises it covers, and the Act applies where 200 or more people can be expected at once. It is not in force yet.
What works: the same act on the same nights through the summer, a tribute act or party band as the headline night on top of your own entertainment team, and acoustic family sets by day. Booked direct, there is no agency between you and the act. Entertainment for holiday parks.
Boat parties and river cruises: a boat is premises
The Licensing Act treats a boat as premises, and one that sails is treated as premises where it is usually moored (Licensing Act guidance, 5.10). So a boat licensed to sell alcohol can have amplified live music between 8am and 11pm for 500 or fewer while the bar is open, and unamplified music needs no licence on any boat in those hours. A New Year’s Eve sailing past 11pm needs the licence to cover it, or a temporary events notice.
What works: a party band for a private-hire sailing, a jazz duo for a dinner cruise, a season of evening public sailings. The practical part matters on the water: who supplies the power, when the act loads on, and sets that last the whole sailing, because the band cannot leave until you dock. Live music for boat parties.
2. The licence rule that matters, venue by venue
One rule per venue, with its source
The table is the short version, for England and Wales. Each venue page carries the full set of rules, and each rule links its official page.
| Venue | The rule that matters | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Pubs and bars | Live music needs no entertainment licence 8am to 11pm for 500 or fewer on alcohol-licensed premises | GOV.UK Live Music Act guidance |
| Hotels | An event held in private is not licensable unless guests are charged for the entertainment to make a profit | GOV.UK Licensing Act guidance, 16.15 |
| Care homes | A workplace: amplified live music needs no entertainment licence 8am to 11pm for 500 or fewer | GOV.UK Licensing Act guidance, 16.6 and 16.33 |
| Social clubs | A club premises certificate counts like a pub licence, for members and their guests | GOV.UK Licensing Act guidance, 16.34 |
| Holiday parks | Listed among the premises types Martyn’s Law covers (not in force yet) | GOV.UK statutory guidance |
| Boats | Treated as premises where the boat is usually moored | GOV.UK Licensing Act guidance, 5.10 |
The rule that matters most, by venue (England and Wales)
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own licensing law: in Scotland, the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. Check with your council. Whatever the venue, TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS still covers playing or performing music in public. Our UK live music licence guide covers the rules in depth.
3. How booking works: the same five steps everywhere
Post the date and hear the acts
The steps are the same whichever room you run. Post the date free, with your budget, the genres you want and your house kit, and acts apply to you, or browse and invite them yourself. Hear them first: profiles can carry audio, video and reviews, where the act has added them.
Sign the contract and pay the act
Agree the fee, sets and kit in the chat, and the booking makes a digital contract you both sign, with a full audit trail. GigXchange takes 0% of the artist’s booking fee. 5% on top only when you pay through GigXchange – 0% when you settle privately. A protected payment holds the deposit with Stripe and releases it after the gig. If an act drops out, GX Gig Rescue sends an urgent invite to available acts near you, and the first to accept is booked.
4. What’s next: more kinds of venue
These six are where we started. If you run something else (a café, a theatre bar, a garden centre), the same booking works today from GigXchange for venues, and we add a page when a venue type has its own rules worth writing down. Tell us yours on the contact page.
The longer read on running a whole live-music programme (finding acts, payments, getting found, multi-site teams) is how UK venues run live music on GigXchange.
02 — Questions8 answersAsked and answeredFrequently Asked Questions
Annual refresh commitment
This guide was published on 20 October 2026 and is refreshed every October. We re-verify every reference, recommendation, and data point once a year. Next scheduled refresh: October 2027. If any claim is outdated before then, email support@gigxchange.app and we aim to update it within one working day.
