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How to get more gigs? (All Teachers)
Hello, my name is Tom – Matthew mentioned that a lot of teachers get in touch with him about how to generate themselves more gigs. I was wondering how people were able to find more gigs across the UK? 🙂
There is a platform called Gigstarter that I am involved with that aims to bring supply and demand for live music together in a transparent, fast and easy way. On Gigstarter clients and artists are in direct contact with each other. There is no extra bookings fee and creating an account is free for Gigstarter – really a platform that is made for artists by other artists.
You can check it out here – http://www.gigstarter.co.uk
What are the best services that you have used to get more gigs and what did you like about them?
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5 Replies
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Hey Tom
This sounds like a great new platform! I always like the idea of something made ‘by artists- for artists!’
To answer your question, over the years we have enjoyed working with various agents. Some have taken far too steep cuts for their services, and others have been more fair in their booking fee/ commission (10-15%) so they are the ones we continue to work with. I think it’s important for any platform to be very transparent and user friendly from the act and also the clients point of view.
Booking terms should be clear cut- so everyone knows where they stand on T&C’s (including the agent). They are some of the things we have liked about our agents. Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing how Gigstarter progresses!
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Hi Laura,
Thank you for your response! I think good agents can be really important for artists. They use their personal network and skills to help the artist getting gigs. As a platform we don’t want to and cannot replace that profession. But we can definitely strengthen each other. In the Netherlands already a lot of agents are using Gigstarter. It’s a great way for them to get extra gigs for their acts/roster.
Totally agree with you, there must be 100% transparency on the platform, and that’s what we offer. You can see the prices and bookers have direct contact with the artist/manager. No tiring middleman involved. Do you also work with a lot of contracts for every Gig? Is it usual in the UK?
Hope to hear from you,
Tom -
No it’s pretty straight forward on contracts. One site is like a platform/ where if an act accepts and books a gig then a set booking fee is generated and invoiced to the act- this is at the point of the act and client both confirming the band. I think the terms and conditions are all pre-set out between the site and act and once you pay the booking fee- you are agreeing to the terms. We do a deposit with the client, so that even if they do cancel after the booking fee is paid- we are not out of pocket as the deposit has covered the booking fee we’ve paid if that makes sense?
In this instance, the booking fee is quite minimal so I think it works well, let me know any other questions about this type of stuff – happy to help if I can x
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Hey Tom – can the site help out with function bands or is it just for original artists?
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Hi Nick,
It’s definitely also for coverbands and function bands! A big part of our bookers are looking for those kind of acts,
Greetings,
Tom