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The GigXchange Index · Issue 01 · April 2026
UK live music rates — April 2026
What gigs actually pay across the UK this month — by city, gig type and band size.
GX Index — April 2026
Other issues
Free report — 11 pages, CC BY 4.0
Last updated: 20 April 2026
Page 1 of 11
Cite this report
GigXchange (2026). GigXchange Index — April 2026. Issue 01. Available at: gigxchange.app/rates/reports/april-2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What UK live music actually pays in 2026
A free, monthly benchmark built from 2,381 real data points across 14 UK cities — for bands pricing gigs, venues setting budgets, agents benchmarking rate cards, and couples sanity-checking wedding quotes.
Audience
Who the Index is for
Working musicians pricing themselves against the market. Venues and promoters budgeting realistic offers. Agents checking rate cards against national medians. Couples and event planners sanity-checking quotes. Journalists and researchers needing citable UK live-music data.
Coverage
What this issue covers
Fees for seven gig types — wedding, corporate, private party, festival, ticketed club, theatre/pit and pub & bar — across fourteen UK cities and four band sizes. Every figure is a median with 25th–75th percentile ranges.
Methodology
Why the Index is different
Built from 2,381 real observations weighted across nine sources: confirmed bookings, artist submissions, MU/Equity minimums, industry rate cards, venue budgets and public listings. Confirmed bookings carry the heaviest weight (1.00); asking-prices the lightest (0.16).
This month's key figures
The headline numbers from the April 2026 issue — wedding, corporate, pub and city-level medians drawn from 2,381 weighted observations.
Wedding band fees, UK national
The typical UK fee for a 3–4 piece wedding band in April 2026 is £1,340. Most bookings fall between £995 and £1,757.
£1,340
3–4 piece median
Top city: Edinburgh
Edinburgh leads at £1,779, with Glasgow second at £1,678. Cardiff (£1,480), Brighton (£1,424) and Leeds (£1,366) complete the top five.
£1,779
Edinburgh — top
Pub & bar gigs
The lowest-paying gig type in the Index. A 3–4 piece pub gig typically pays £487, with most fees between £433 and £649.
£487
Pubs — lowest
Corporate events
Corporate bookings pay £839 for a 3–4 piece — about 37% below the wedding median. Shorter sets and fewer special requests explain the gap.
£839
Corporate median
Solo wedding acts
A solo wedding singer or DJ charges a UK median of £367. Browse artist profiles to compare rates and hear demos.
£367
Solo median
Private parties
Private party bookings pay £1,098 for a 3–4 piece — the second highest gig type after weddings. Festivals pay £757 and theatre/pit work £631.
£1,098
Private party median
April 2026 Index FAQ
Everything artists, venues and event planners ask about UK gig fees in April 2026 — answered with real data from 2,381 observations across 14 cities.
The April 2026 UK median for a 3–4 piece wedding band is £1,340. The middle 50% of bookings fall between £995 and £1,757, with the top end reaching £2,241. Use the live rate calculator for a personalised quote by city and band size.
The UK median for a solo wedding act in April 2026 is £367, with most bookings between £305 and £560. The top end reaches £650. Browse artist profiles to compare rates and listen to demos.
The UK median for a 5+ piece wedding band is £2,000, with most bookings between £1,595 and £2,570. Each extra musician typically adds £600–£700 to the fee. See our guide to live band pricing for a full breakdown.
The UK median for a 3–4 piece pub or bar gig is £487, with most fees between £433 and £649. Rates vary by city — check the Gig Directory for live listings near you.
Corporate events typically pay £839 for a 3–4 piece in April 2026. Private parties pay £1,098, festivals £757, and theatre/pit work £631. The rate calculator breaks this down by city and band size.
Nine sources, weighted by trust: confirmed GigXchange bookings (1.00), artist-confirmed post-event submissions (0.85), Musicians’ Union and Equity recommended rates (0.60), industry rate cards (0.48), venue gig budgets (0.25), anonymous submissions (0.16) and artist profile asking rates (0.16). The April 2026 issue is built from 2,381 active observations.
Yes — the report, the live calculator and the underlying data are all free under CC BY 4.0. Raw data is mirrored on Hugging Face, Zenodo and Kaggle.
The underlying figures rebuild every night at 05:00 UTC. Industry rate cards rescan weekly on Mondays. A full monthly report is published the third week of every month.
Help us make the next issue better
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