Why exists

Live music needs people in rooms.

Not streams. Not likes. Not followers.

People standing in front of musicians.

All over the country, bands and artists are playing in pubs, bars, clubs, hotels, community venues and tiny independent stages.

A huge amount of it is free.

And much of it is almost invisible.

It exists in Facebook posts, posters, venue websites, local groups and dozens of disconnected corners of the internet.

The biggest music platforms don't have much reason to fix that. Their businesses are built around tickets, tours and artists big enough to monetise.

We want to build the most complete picture of grassroots live music we can.

Not to own it.

To make it easier to find, support and keep alive.

Every artist.

Every venue.

Every gig we can find.

Connected together and put on a map.

Not because every gig needs to become commercialised.

Quite the opposite.

Because a band playing for pocket money in a pub on Saturday night deserves to be discoverable too.

We believe local live music is part of what makes towns worth living in.

We believe small venues matter.

We believe working musicians matter.

We believe free gigs matter.

And we believe finding them should be ridiculously easy.

That's .

Keeping live music alive.

The long version

SET 1 OF 1

Grassroots means grassroots

Grassroots music isn't only a particular class of recognised music venue.

It's the pub with a band in the corner.
The social club with a packed Saturday night.
The hotel that puts music on every Friday.
The tiny independent venue giving original bands their first show.
The covers band doing 70 gigs a year.
The acoustic singer playing to 30 people.
The open mic where somebody plays live for the first time.

If people are making live music and people are turning up to hear it, it matters to .

Grassroots isn't a career stage

For an original artist, a pub, club or tiny independent venue can be where an audience starts. Somewhere to test songs, get heard and build enough momentum to take the next step.

For thousands of other musicians there may be no ladder at all. They play covers, functions, pubs and clubs because they love playing, because they're good at it, and because audiences love seeing them.

Neither is more grassroots than the other.

One needs somewhere to begin. The other keeps the circuit alive week after week. Both need rooms, audiences and visibility.

A pub with a band in it is a music venue too

Grassroots live music doesn't only happen in dedicated venues with a recognised place in the music industry.

It happens next to the bar.
In the corner where three tables normally go.
In social clubs, hotels, working men's clubs, pubs and back rooms.

Sometimes that room gives an original artist their first audience. Sometimes a covers band fills it every Saturday night.

If a place regularly puts musicians in front of an audience, it matters to .

We don't just collect listings

A gig is connected to a band.
A band is connected to venues.
A venue is connected to a town.

Those relationships continue long after Saturday night has passed.

So is building something deeper than another events calendar.

We're creating a living record of grassroots music: the artists playing it, the venues supporting it, where they're playing, where they've played before, and the local scenes connecting them.

Every gig makes that picture a little clearer.

And it stays what it has always been: the scene's own picture of itself, made easier to see. The scene belongs to the people in it. The bands, the venues, the promoters, the people who turn up. The technology should serve the scene. Not the other way around.

The rest is up to all of us

Go to gigs.
Try a band you've never heard of.
Walk into a venue you've never visited.
Spend some money at the bar.
Tell somebody when a band was brilliant.
Take your mates next time.

Because grassroots live music only stays alive if people turn up.

We'll help you find it.

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