Gigit Launches Direct To Fan Music Booking Service

Gigit launched in public beta over Memorial Day Weekend as a direct to fan booking service for musicians. It's a timely move that addresses pain points in the current private booking situation and benefits from a more general move to D2F, experiences and transparency. Perhaps most importantly, it seems likely to open up music revenue streams that have been previously throttled.

The premise of Gigit is fairly simple:

• Artists post what they need to do a gig including cost.
• Person wanting a band hires them.

You'd think doing that in real life would be fairly simple but, except for acts that play a lot of private shows or are exploring alternative venues, most bands aren't really oriented towards such things. It's hard to know who to talk to, what's a fair price and so forth for individuals outside of the music or party business.

Which is weird because most musicians I know love the idea of getting paid a fair wage to play in what is often a more interesting and/or enjoyable context than a bar or club, especially smaller, local acts.

So, given that house concerts, experiences and direct connections to artists are all currently big themes, it makes sense that something like Gigit would emerge.

Gigit Goes Live in LA

Gigit's a well-designed site with lots of info about the artists presented in a manner that doesn't remind you of a spreadsheet.

Michael Carney at PandoDaily got more behind-the-scenes info on Gigit and Gigit founder Tegan Monique Gaan who says she began working on the site in December. So far Gigit has:

• Raised $365,000 in seed financing.
• Organized parties at SXSW.
• Held a series of private events in Santa Monica leading up to public events on Memorial Day Weekend.

Now the service is live for Los Angeles. Artist fees are visible on the site. Here's a bit more about the money and services:

"Gigit charges the host 20 percent on top of this artist fee, takes a 5 percent cut of the band’s fee, and makes a small profit on rentals as well – rates could change going forward, according to Gaan. In the future, the company hopes to provide additional promotion and content distribution opportunities for the bands on its platform."

Gigit Could Unlock Throttled Revenue Streams

Carney expresses concern that this approach "could destroy the perceived scarcity and value around being able to book your favorite big-name band for a private show." He also raises concerns about how transparency could affect artist pricing.

Those are all worth considering but the current state of muddled communication, asymmetric information and other forms of institutionalized noise makes it likely that Gigit could be a way to increase the marketplace for live acts.

Yes, it may be true that bands and businesses that depend on lack of transparency to negotiate higher prices may suffer but I think most honest, working class bands can benefit. In any case, "favorite big-name b[r]ands" should be fine given that they're favorites with big names.

Except for really special occasions, people without a lot of entertainment contacts are going to default to what's easy. So instead of waiting for the guys to get together for a practice where they can discuss the gig or facing the overhead costs of going through a booking service not designed to meet their needs, most people will ask around to see if anybody can dj or book the same act everybody else books that's easy to deal with or create a Spotify playlist and be done with it.

A platform like Gigit could open up live booking for private events and alternative venues in a manner that could unleash revenue streams much larger than people currently imagine. And that's something a lot of musicians could use right about now.

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.