What: TheBash, formerly GigMasters, connects entertainers — comedians, speakers, bands, etc — and service providers, such as event planners and photographers, with customers
Expected pay: you set it
Husl$core: $
Commissions and fees: $99 – $149 annually, + 5% on bookings
Where: Nationwide
Requirements: A valid credit card
Review:
TheBash, formerly known as GigMasters, purports to advertise your entertainment-related service — band, DJ, comedy act, photography services, etc. — to people who need it. To register, however, you must pay for a subscription for a minimum of three months. If you book a gig through the site, it will hit you with an additional 5% booking fee.
Copious artists who have signed up with the site maintain you won’t have to worry about that booking fee, though. Gigs appear to be rare. Charges are not.
TheBash will auto-charge your credit card year after year, unless you remember to cancel prior to the automatic renewal date. One day late, and you’re charged for the duration. There are no refunds. Even the site’s 30-day money-back trial appears to be misleading, according to artists who have complained about the site.
GigSalad appears to be a better choice, but only marginally. If you are a musician, you may have better luck earning money teaching music at LessonFace than booking gigs on either site.
What their users say (from Pissed Consumer):
I joined Gigmasters in November 27th 2016, but realized that it was a mistake to sign up and deactivated account. I called and tried to reach someone, which did not work then went online and deactivated account. 11/27/2017 – got a charge again from Gigmasters for renewal. I called and sent email asking to cancel my account and refund my money. They did not cancel my account and now I received another charge. It’s not easy to get rid off a blood sucker like Gigmasters. I was charged more than $1100 and not a single benefit or call.
My DUO was on there for a year and NOTHING. 15 years together and we have opened for National Acts like The Drifters, The Duprees, The Skyliners, Danny & The Juniors, Bobby Rydell and NOTHING! I probably answered 50 gigs asap with a REASONABLE price and NOT ONE GIG! Like gigsalad, I believe that some of these gigs are PHONY, MADE UP to make you think there’s something on the other end.
Account freeze
We signed up with Gigmasters for transportation leads (i.e. party buses and shuttle buses). Customer is supposed to pay a deposit upon booking. However, customers click on booking in the Gigmasters website and never pay the deposit. Gigmasters requires a 5% booking fee for the lead (on top of the $300 yearly fee ). The big problem is that Gigmasters immediately freezes our account for non-payment of the booking fee for a booking that was never confirmed. For weeks, our account is on hold. We cannot reply to leads until this issue resolved. We dealt with this problem at least 5 times. This is a horrible site to advertise on. We never received any bookings from their site due to customers that press book and never followup paying a deposit.
I signed up for Gigmasters last year with hopes of getting bookings. Came close a few times but nothing panned out. I am in LA so the clients get inundated with bands wanting the gig. With 92 referrals and not one booking just makes me believe this isn’t a good match for me. I had no idea they were auto renewing me. When it came up on my bill they refused to give me a refund. It is like they hold you hostage. You are much better off getting your own gigs. They make it virtually impossible to cancel.
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This seems more like a vehicle to house your complaint rather than a review. I’ve been on GigMasters for 3 years and while some of your points are valid you cannot beat the number of leads they deliver. They show up high on Google for most entertainment and music searches when combined with a location. This is something I cannot do on my own. It takes some time to get used to quoting and following up, and you need to be persistent with the client, but that’s the case for any lead online. Nothing beats a word of mouth referral but I need more leads!
Although it can be a little clunky, another feature I like is being able to accept deposit and balance payments for no additional charge.
I’ve been with them for 3 years and land 5-6 bookings per year, which more than covers the cost of the membership. The ROI is 3-4 times what I pay, at least. GigMasters isn’t the end all be all, but its a great piece of my advertising puzzle.
They have great sales and I have made several times my money back from them. They are a sales platform, if you don’t want to get ripped off get a non refundable deposit, if you don’t get it and you get ripped off that’s you. The platform can’t do your sales for you, once you are on their and you stay with it and make improvements as you go along you can do well. It is what you make of it.
I used GigMasters for the past 4 or 5 years to build a professional Santa booking business. Leads and bookings did earn us some good business. This past year we managed bookings for 13 Santas (not all of them through GM) and have also created a large reserve of repeat clients (again, not through GM alone).
Our Santas who have seasonal 3-month registrations are now expiring. Some have annual registrations. I have notified GM that none will be renewing because fails to protect us against fraud.
Last season (meaning 2018) we booked work through GigMasters for a purported charity we subsequently learned has been the subject of lawsuits for deceptive practices and violations. Even a Catholic Church and their local government sued them. We’ve found newspaper reports of local grassroots meeting to protest what they say is illegal housing and fraudulent licensing. They lied to us and cheated us out of close to $1,000 worth of work.
When we informed GigMasters of this, they declined to help us recover from that “charity.” So, we licked our wounds and moved on. Then came the 2019 season.
That same lying cheating “charity” was back on GigMasters seeking to book work. When I objected to GM that they are enabling a known thief, they told us “we have no control over clients who post on the system.” They refused to drop them as a listing.
Aside from that being a ridiculous lie, it is an insult to our intelligence. It is unacceptable that our registration fees are supporting the GM system that will do nothing to protect vendors from abusive and deceptive clients.
So, after making those reasons very clear to GM , we have begun the process of removing ourselves from their service. None of our registrations will be renewed. It may not stop GM from continuing to be what we believe to be an irresponsible enabler, but we have the comfort of knowing that we are not supporting it either.
When COVID19 hit, all of our jobs cancelled. Since large assemblies of people were banned at the local/state/federal levels, we were not getting any new leads or bookings. We asked TheBash-Gigmasters to “share the burden” and suspend our account for a couple of months, and let us reinstate with the same account credit later. They refused, saying “you can suspend your account, but will continue to debit your annual membership”. In other words, THEY CONTINUE TO MAKE PROFIT FROM VENDORS DURING THE COVID19 crisis. (By the way, their competitor GigSalad offers this “suspension” feature with no hassle to the vendor.)
Avoid TheBash-Gigmasters . They are driven by profits. Vendors are at the bottom of the food-chain.. They even sent all Vendors a notice, “encouraging” us to refund non-refundable deposits for the cancelled events (which we had already done), “so customers can use it for a future booking”. TheBash would have Vendors pay ALL the burden for the COVID19 crisis, not customers, and certainly not The Bash. Their greedy Profiteering shines through!
Thanks Irma, the same thing happened to our band. We will NEVER AGAIN USE “The Bash”. THEY SUCK! Under all the slick marketing, they are just immoral, cheap, lying, crooks!!!!!
I’m hoping that someone in charge with main decisions in this ‘Bash/Gigmasters’ company will take note of the legit complaints mentioned here . My own experience is very much in line with many others’ who listed their membership issues, recurring charges, ‘made up’ inquiries, and no gigs over extended time periods while their accounts are getting charged ; meanwhile off this site I”ve been doing truly great with my artistic work/bookings. Such companies can’t be destined to live too long unless someone takes responsibility to address their growing tumors.