Terms & Conditions

MusicGigs is a marketplace. Independent musicians, bands, DJs and other performers ("acts") list what they do and what they charge. People and businesses looking for live music ("clients") describe an event, receive quotes, and book and pay for a performance through the platform. Venues use the same surfaces to book acts and to list their own shows and open mic nights.

For a booking made here, MusicGigs acts as the act's limited booking and payment agent: we present their quote, form the booking on their behalf when a client accepts and pays, and collect and hold the money for them. A client's payment to MusicGigs discharges what the client owes the act for the booking, even though we do not release it to the act straight away. We are not the act's general agent, manager, employer or representative for anything else.

MusicGigs is not the performer and does not supply the performance.

The performance itself is supplied by the act, under a contract between the act and the client formed on the terms of the accepted quote. We are not a party to that contract. We do not audition acts, we do not supervise or direct how a performance is delivered, we do not set an act's prices, and we do not guarantee that any act will be booked or that any client will find one. Verification badges, completeness scores, ratings and ranking are signals drawn from platform activity, not endorsements or warranties.

When you create an account with us, you must provide accurate and complete information and keep it current. You are responsible for:

• Safeguarding your account credentials
• All activities that occur under your account
• Notifying us immediately of any unauthorized access

A band manager granted access to an act's profile can act for that act on the platform, including sending quotes and accepting bookings. Everything a manager does binds the act as if the act had done it.

A booking on MusicGigs is made in three steps:

• A request. The client describes the event: date, times, place, what they want and roughly what they want to spend. A request is an enquiry, not an offer, and it expires after 14 days if the act does not answer.
• A quote. The act replies with a price and the terms attached to it: what is included, what is not, set times, the deposit portion and one of the three named cancellation policies. A quote is a binding offer from the act, open until the date the act sets on it (7 days unless they choose otherwise) or until it is withdrawn before it is accepted. The smallest booking we handle is $50.
• Acceptance and payment. The client accepts by paying in full. That single act creates the booking. Some acts publish a fixed price for a defined package and can be booked in one step, which works the same way: paying is accepting.

At the moment of payment we record what was agreed — the price, the fees, the deposit portion, the cancellation policy, the event details, and the date, time and IP address of the acceptance — and store it on the booking. That snapshot is the agreement. Later changes to an act's prices or policies, or to these Terms, do not reach back into it.

Both sides must then do what they agreed. Changes to an existing booking need both sides to agree in writing through the platform.

MusicGigs charges both sides of a booking, and nothing else:

• Commission of 5% of the performance fee, deducted from what we pay the act. The act keeps the rest.
• A client service fee of about 8.3% of the performance fee, card processing included, with a minimum of $7.02, added at checkout and shown as its own line before you pay. Card processing costs are inside this figure.

There is no membership fee, listing fee, subscription or charge for paid placement. We do not sell ranking. The rates in force when a booking is paid for are recorded on that booking and govern it for its whole life. Full detail, including what an act receives and when, is in the Payment Terms.

The client pays once, in full, at booking. MusicGigs receives that payment as the act's limited payment agent and holds it rather than passing it straight on. Funds are released to the act on a schedule: the balance 48 hours after the event ends, which is exactly as long as either side has to report a problem, and the deposit portion on the terms set out in the Payment Terms. Some bookings — an act's first, one following a recent cancellation, one spanning several dates, or one flagged by fraud screening — are held in full until after the event.

Payments are processed by Stripe and acts are paid through Stripe Connect. We never see or store full card numbers. An act must complete Stripe's verification before they can send a quote or be booked.

Held funds are not held in trust or in a legal escrow, and we do not pay interest on them.

Every act picks one of three named cancellation policies — Flexible, Moderate or Strict — and the one attached to the quote you accept governs your booking. The thresholds, what happens to the service fee, and worked examples are all in the Cancellation & Refund Policy, which is part of this agreement.

The two rules worth stating here as well:

• If the act cancels, the client is refunded in full, in cash, including the service fee, whatever the policy says and however close to the event it happens.
• Refund windows run from the event date, not the booking date. Booking inside a window means that money is non-refundable straight away. When that is the case, checkout says so prominently and in plain words, in the place where the refund figure would otherwise be, before you pay.

If the act does not turn up, turns up substantially late, or does not bring the lineup or play the length that was booked, either side may open a dispute for 48 hours after the event ends. That freezes the act's payout while we review it. We will decide the outcome, which may include a full or partial refund, based on what both sides submit. Our decision on how held funds are distributed is final as between us and you, and does not stop you pursuing the other party directly.

Acts using MusicGigs are independent contractors. They are not employees, workers, agents, partners or joint venturers of MusicGigs, and nothing in these Terms creates any of those relationships.

• Acts decide whether to accept a request, what to charge, what to include, how to perform, and which policy to offer.
• Acts supply their own instruments, equipment and transport, and arrange their own insurance, licences and permits.
• Acts are free to work for anyone else, on this platform or off it, at any time.
• MusicGigs does not withhold tax, pay employment or unemployment taxes, provide workers' compensation, or offer employee benefits of any kind. Acts are responsible for their own taxes.

A client engaging an act engages that act directly. If the nature of an engagement means the client is the one with employment or tax obligations toward the act, they are the client's obligations, not ours.

You agree to:

• Describe the event accurately, including anything that changes the job
• Provide what you said you would provide — access, power, a stage or playing area, parking, sound if the quote says you supply it
• Keep the performance space safe, and tell the act about anything that affects that
• Pay through MusicGigs, and use the platform for messages and changes so there is a record
• Have the right to book music at the venue, including any licence the venue requires

You agree to:

• Only quote for work you can actually do, on a date you are actually free
• Turn up on time, ready, and perform what was booked
• Answer requests, and decline rather than ignore what you do not want
• Keep your availability accurate so nobody is double-booked
• Hold your own insurance, licences and permissions, and comply with the law where you play
• Complete Stripe's verification honestly, with details that are yours, before quoting

Cancelling a confirmed booking is serious: the client is refunded in full and you receive a reliability strike, which affects how you appear on the platform and holds your payouts until after your events. The card company keeps its processing fee on the refunded payment, and that fee is taken from your next payout. Strikes, and the fee with them, can be waived where there was a genuine emergency. Repeatedly cancelling, not turning up, or going quiet on confirmed bookings can end your account.

You agree not to:

• Use the service for any unlawful purpose
• Post false, misleading, or fraudulent content
• Harass, abuse, or harm other users
• Interfere with or disrupt the service
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems
• Use a payment method that is not yours, or otherwise use the platform to launder money or commit fraud
• Create a booking that is not a real engagement, including booking yourself, to move money or manufacture reviews or ranking
• Scrape, copy or resell the directory, or use it to build a competing database
• Take the fee dispute route instead of the refund route — filing a chargeback in place of asking us

The service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, MusicGigs disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or error-free access.

Because we do not supply the performance, we do not warrant the quality, safety, legality, punctuality or suitability of any act, client or venue, the truth of anything they post, or that a booking will go ahead. Any dispute about a performance is between the client and the act; our role is limited to how we distribute the funds we hold, as described in section 8.

MusicGigs Org LLC shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost bookings, lost data or the cost of a substitute act, arising out of or relating to the service or a booking, even if we were told such damages were possible.

Our total liability to you for any claim relating to a particular booking is limited to the amount MusicGigs earned in fees on that booking. For any claim not relating to a specific booking, our total liability is limited to the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose.

Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

A dispute with the other party to a booking goes through the resolution centre first, within 48 hours of the event ending. That is the fastest route and the only one that can move the money we are still holding.

A dispute with MusicGigs follows three steps:

• Talk to us first. Email gregg@musicgigs.org with what happened and what you want. Most things end here. Neither side may start an arbitration until 30 days after that notice.
• Then binding arbitration. Any claim that is not resolved will be settled by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, seated in Travis County, Texas, or conducted by phone, video or on documents if you prefer. The arbitrator decides the claim and may award the same relief a court could to that individual.
• Individually, not as a class. Claims are brought only in your own name, not as a class, collective, consolidated or representative action, and the arbitrator may not consolidate claims. If this waiver is held unenforceable for a claim, that claim goes to court instead and the rest of this section still applies to everything else.

Two exceptions. Either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court instead, and either of us may ask a court for an injunction to stop misuse of intellectual property or unauthorised access to the service.

Opting out. You can opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing gregg@musicgigs.org within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, saying so and giving the account name. Opting out costs you nothing else in this agreement and we will not treat you differently for it.