Get Booked. Get Paid.
No Middlemen.
Skip the traditional agency taking 20% of your fees. Create a free profile in 5 minutes, get discovered by UK venues across 65 cities, and scout 13,800+ live gigs in the directory by city, genre and fee — digital contracts signed in 1 minute, Stripe payments cleared within 7 days, two-way reviews on every booking.
Artist Guides
How to Get Gigs in the UK
Practical guide to getting gigs: 830+ grassroots venues, fees from £140, profile tips, outreach scripts and booking workflow.
The Complete Gigging Toolkit for UK Bands
Every tool a UK band or solo artist gets free on GigXchange — a media-rich EPK, four promo generators, setlist and contract builders, live rate data, Smart Match and direct booking with escrow.
How to Price Your Gig
A decision framework for setting your fee — MU rates, market percentiles from the GX Index, and when to accept a door split.
AI for Musicians UK: 9 Guides
9 field-tested AI guides for UK musicians, beginner to advanced — copy-paste prompts, automated release campaigns and gig marketing.
How Open Mics Work
What to expect, what to bring, etiquette, and how to turn open mic slots into paid bookings.
Getting Paid as a UK Musician
How UK musicians actually get paid — invoice templates, the £1,000 HMRC threshold, fee benchmarks and the Late Payment Act for chasing slow venues.
Ready for your next gig?
Free profile — 5 minutes to set up.
Last updated: 7 July 2026
Why Artists Choose GIGXCHANGE
Everything you need to build a gigging career, in one place
No Gatekeepers
Approach any venue directly. No agents required, no auditions, no waiting for someone to "discover" you. Your talent speaks for itself.
Zero Commission
What you agree is what you get — no 15–35% agency cut eating into your fee. GigXchange is free to use; the only optional charge is 5% for protected payment, where the deposit is held safely until the gig is done.
Contracts & Payments Built In
Every booking comes with an auto-generated digital contract. Deposits are held securely via Stripe and released when the gig is complete.
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.
How It Works
From signup to getting paid — four simple steps
Build Your Profile
Add your genre, location, pricing, availability, photos, audio, and video. Show venues exactly what you bring to the stage.
Get Discovered
Venues search by genre, location, budget, and capacity. Your profile works for you 24/7 — even while you sleep.
Book & Sign
Receive booking requests, negotiate terms, and sign a digital contract. Or browse open gigs and venues and apply directly.
Play & Get Paid
Show up, play your set, and funds are released automatically via Stripe. No chasing invoices, no cash on the night.
Built for Working Musicians
Not a generic directory — a proper live music booking platform
Gig Directory & Smart Match
Scout thousands of live UK gigs by city, genre and fee, and apply to open ones in a click. Or tell Smart Match when you’re free and the kind of room you want — it surfaces your best-fit venues to pitch, so the right gigs come to you.
Pro EPK in One Click
A press kit bookers actually open — auto-built from your profile with your bio, music, video and stats, live at its own shareable link. It updates itself as your profile grows, so what you paste into a pitch is always current.
Tour Posters & Flyers
Auto-build a tour poster from your confirmed GigXchange gigs — pick a style and format, add a scannable QR and your logo. Spin up gig flyers from five on-brand templates, sized for Instagram, stories or print. Share in-app or export in seconds, all saved in your account.
Stage Plot & Setlist
Map your stage and channel list so the venue’s engineer knows exactly where everything goes. Build a setlist that doubles as a shareable poster — sets, timings, keys and a scannable QR link, in the style and format you want. Share both in-app or as a PDF, all saved in your account and sent before you load in.
Professional Invoicing & Escrow Payments
Invoices that look like an established business — company and VAT details, per-line VAT, PO references, payment terms and due dates. Share them in-app or as a branded PDF, all saved in your account. On platform bookings, Stripe holds the deposit and releases it on completion — no cash on the night, no chasing.
Fans & Mailing List
Turn one-off crowds into a following — capture fans, import your existing contacts, and send branded email updates that fill your next room. Your mailing list, owned by you — not rented from a social platform.
Venues discover you directly through your profile and availability. From first enquiry to paid gig, GigXchange keeps the booking trail together: date, fee, deposit, contract, payment status, messages and review history.
What Do UK Gigs Actually Pay?
Real 2026 fee ranges from 3,696 observations in the GX Index
| Solo | Duo | Full Band | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pub / bar | £100–£250 | £200–£400 | £300–£700 |
| Wedding | £300–£700 | £500–£900 | £1,200–£2,500 |
| Corporate | £400–£800 | £600–£1,200 | £1,500–£4,000+ |
| Private party | £250–£500 | £350–£600 | £600–£1,500 |
| Festival (30–45 min) | £150–£400 | £200–£600 | £200–£800 |
Why Peer-to-Peer Beats Agencies
Traditional agencies work for big-budget events. Most gigs aren't that.
Traditional UK booking agencies charge 20% to 35% commission and focus on weddings and corporate events. If you’re playing pubs, bars, or small festivals — gigs that pay £150 to £600 per night — no commission-based agency is going to represent you at that level.
GigXchange is built for exactly those gigs. You keep 100% of your agreed fee. The platform is free to use — the only optional charge is 5% for protected payment, where the deposit is held safely until the gig is done. You set your own price, choose your own gigs, and deal directly with the venue. No exclusivity contracts, no auditions, no waiting to be picked.
| GIGXCHANGE | UK Booking Agencies | |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | None — optional 5% protected-payment fee | 15–35% of your fee |
| Contact with venue | Direct messaging | Via the agency |
| Exclusivity | None — book anywhere | Often required |
| Contracts | Auto-generated, digital | Manual / varies |
| Payments | Stripe escrow, auto-release | Cash / invoice / varies |
| Gig types | All — pubs to festivals | Weddings & corporate focus |
| Cost to join | Free | Audition / application |
Free Tools for UK Artists
Free for every UK musician — tools, data and guides, no paywall
Gig Rate Calculator
See what UK gigs actually pay in 2026 — live percentile rates by city, band size and event type, benchmarked against Musicians’ Union minimums. Quote with data, not guesswork.
Open Mic Finder
1,100+ open mic nights mapped across 78 UK cities — filter by day, entry fee or backline and lock in your next stage this week.
Contract Generator
Generate a UK-compliant gig contract in under 2 minutes — 8 standard clauses, deposit terms and dual e-signatures, exported as an instant PDF. Every booking protected.
Outreach Templates
6 proven venue-outreach email templates with auto-fill, logo upload and one-click copy to Gmail — the fastest way to pitch UK venues and land more gigs.
Member Spotlight
Get featured: a 1,500-word editorial, A4 press-kit PDF, share card and Spotlight badge — professional music PR worth £400+, free for members.
GX Index
The GX Index — the UK’s open live-music rate dataset, refreshed nightly and free to cite anywhere under CC BY 4.0. The data behind fair gig pay.
UK Musician Earnings 2026
What UK musicians really earn in 2026 — a data-backed report breaking down pay by gig type, city and band size, free to cite (CC BY 4.0).
How to Get More UK Gigs
The 7-step playbook to book more UK gigs — city-by-city scene guides, outreach scripts and real 2026 fee benchmarks for independent artists.
Artist FAQ
- UK Open Mic Finder — 1,100+ open mic listings across 78 cities, filter by day, fee or backline
- UK Gig Rate Calculator — live market percentiles by city, band size and event type
- Setlist Builder — drag-reorder songs, auto-calc set duration, design poster-ready setlists, share by link or PDF
- Booking Contract Generator — UK-compliant performance agreement, 8 standard clauses, dual e-signatures, instant PDF
- GX Index — the full open UK live-music rate dataset, refreshed nightly
- UK Musician Earnings 2026 — data-backed report on what UK musicians actually earn (CC BY 4.0)
- UK Market Statistics — venues, fees and industry benchmarks
- What You Should Charge in 2026 — UK gig pay broken down by city, gig type and band size with real percentile data
- How to actually get gigs in the UK — the 7-step playbook for independent artists, with city-by-city scenes and 2026 fee context
Booking-contract generator and venue-legitimacy checker are next in the roadmap.
- How to set your gig price — a step-by-step framework for quoting confidently
- What to include in a gig contract — the 8 clauses every UK musician needs
- Venue cancelled your gig? — your rights, deposit recovery and next steps
- Handling a bad review — when to respond, when to ignore, and how to turn it around
- Dealing with no-shows — what to do when the other side doesn’t turn up
Your Next Gig Is Waiting
Free profile, 5 minutes to set up, no card needed. Join 464 artists across 40 cities on the UK’s peer-to-peer marketplace.