Gigger is a new online booking platform which is set to revolutionise the way venues and bands interact, streamlining communications and making organising gigs as simple as possible. We spoke to Gigger founder, Anthony Manning-Franklin, about the possibilities.
What, in simple terms, is Gigger?
Gigger is a platform for bands, venues, and promoters to find each other and put on awesome events! If someone asks you “Got gigs?” and your answer isn’t yes, then you need Gigger. Or a more reliable bassist. (I’m a drummer, the only people lower than me on the food chain are bassists – bloody bassists.)
What are the inherent advantages for artists?
Artists are much more visible to promoters on Gigger. They can easily be searched by location and genre, quickly listened to, and immediately offered a gig. At which point, everyone who is an admin of that band on Gigger will get the email with the offer details.
We’re working to automate as much of the process as possible – by the end of this week we expect to be automatically compiling worksheets, tech specs, etc, before sending them out to the right people at the right time. Artists will also be able to use the platform as promoters themselves – pitching venues their own event proposals.
And for bookers?
Their work load is drastically reduced! The amount of time promoters have to spend finding bands, finding their contact details, writing an email, duplicating all the info they sent the last band – Gigger does that with a couple of clicks.
And although it’s hard to measure – we’re hoping to see an increase in quality of lineups. If promoters are more able to find bands better matched to any given lineup, then hopefully they can put on more entertaining events, which would lead to more punters and more cash for everyone involved – bands, venues, promoters.
How does Gigger integrate with social media?
Gigger heavily integrates with Facebook. We use it to pull band/venue/event data so that people don’t have to waste their time entering data that already exists on Facebook. We also piggy back on their admin system – remove that unreliable ex-bassist from your band’s Facebook Page admins and they no longer have access to the band’s Gigger profile either.
There’s more cool stuff we want to do like helping the promoter construct their Facebook Event when a gig is finalised, then automatically including the link in the worksheet so there’s no excuse for duplicate FB events.
This system looks set to cut out some middlemen…
I don’t think it’s going to put people out of a job, it’ll give them tools to do the job better. Excel didn’t put accountants out of business. The human touch is definitely needed to put together a gig, it’s an art finding the right acts and making a special, memorable event. That takes practice and experience. Better tools have never rendered specialist expertise irrelevant.
Still, yeah it’s going to make a really big dent in the industry.
TRAVIS JOHNSON
Check out Gigger at gigger.rocks
