Live music marketplace GigPig has facilitated an 800% increase in live music bookings so far this year, directly contributing to a boost in takings for hospitality venues and earnings for artists.
The number of weekly gigs booked through GigPig has hit a milestone 1000 in recent weeks. This is a rise of 800% from the average number of gigs booked on a weekly basis in January. GigPig is a platform which gives artists free access to find, play and get paid for gigs and venues with a streamlined way to book and manage in-house entertainment.
The Manchester-headquartered business, which launched its BETA platform in June 2022, has been welcoming increased numbers of gigging artists and venues. In that time, the platform has saved venues more than £2m in operational costs and boosted the artist market by more than £6m.
In the last six months, more than 11,500 gigs have been staged via GigPig; the latest uplift in bookings is a result of the platform onboarding a record number of leading hospitality venues and the artist talent pool organically growing 10% month on month.
In total, GigPig has now been the catalyst to staging 18,000 live music gigs in pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs across the UK since last year. GigPig now has in excess of 5,000 artists on the platform and works with more than 600 venues nationwide.
Kit Muir-Rogers, co-founder of GigPig, said: “The number of venues and artists on our platform is growing rapidly, showing a real appetite for live music in grassroots venues. It’s great to see that both sides of the market are really making the most of the opportunities that come with our seamless, affordable way to book gigs.
“Increased gigs results in enhanced takings for venues and this, coupled with a saving on operational costs, means that GigPig has the ability to make a difference for the hospitality sector. We are championing artists all the way, giving them an outlet to open up doors to new venues and more bookings – in turn helping them to make a reliable income gigging. We can’t wait to see what the next few months hold as momentum continues to build.”
GigPig works with hundreds of independent venues, as well as national chains including Albert Schloss, Arc Inspirations, TGI Fridays, NQ64, Boom Battle Bars, Adventure Bar Group, East Coast Concepts and Stack. The impact of GigPig’s platform underpins the important role live music plays in stimulating the UK economy, making cities more culturally rich places to visit.
