Basics:
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 & fees: $99-$199 annually, plus 5% commission on bookings
Where: Nationwide
Requirements: A valid credit card
What is TheBash?
TheBash, formerly known as GigMasters, advertises your entertainment-related service to people looking for anything from DJs and live bands to bartenders.
How it works
The site allows vendors, ranging from bands and DJs to bartenders and photographers, to create a profile on the site.
This profile will be listed under your service to local or regional consumers looking for that service. But you must pay a membership fee to register.
TheBash review
If you want to list your services on TheBash, you will need to pay a membership fee. These fees typically run $129 to $219 per year. But the site runs frequent promotions where the membership price drops to $79 for a basic membership and $159 for a “pro” membership.
What’s the difference between basic and pro? So, if you want to list your services in more than three categories — maybe waiting, bartending, cooking and catering — you’d need to buy a pro membership. Pros are able to list more services and get better visibility on the site.
Both pros and basic members also pay a 5% commission on all bookings.
Auto renewals
The Bash says you can cancel within 30 days and get your money back. However, if you don’t cancel within that time and request your money back, your fees become non refundable.
And the site with automatically renew your subscription every year.
Value
Are the memberships worth the cost? That’s hard question to answer for a couple of reasons. The first is that TheBash is the renamed version of GigMasters. GigMasters was widely panned for charging high fees (about twice what TheBash now charges) and for providing few valid leads.
Since then, TheBash has been purchased by TheKnot/WeddingWire, which could bring in more customers.
However, when you look for vendor reviews of TheBash, you get reviews of the parent company — TheKnot.
And TheKnot and WeddingWire reviews filed with the Better Business Bureau are absolutely miserable. Vendors complain that they’re charged thousands of dollars for spam and are locked into impossible-to-cancel year-long contracts.
There are a handful of reviews of TheBash alone and those are a mixed bag. (See what their users say from SiteJabber — and SideHusl readers — below. We’ve also retained the reviews for GigMasters, since they may still provide helpful information.)
Bookings
But, the real question is this: Does this site generate enough bookings to make paying the annual fee worthwhile? For that, we looked at the site’s “Rising Star Awards.” These awards were given to the sites that got the most bookings in their category during 2023. (As of our latest updated 1/28/2025, the site had yet to reveal its 2024 winners.)
The top Acoustic Band had just 5 “Bash verified” bookings in 2024 and appeared to have just three in 2023.
The top Beach Band had 7 verified bookings. Their Big Band winner had 3 bookings in 2023, while their top country act had 13 bookings in 2023. And their top balloon twisting/face painting service appeared to get several bookings per month at $100 per hour.
These are the top bookers, so adjust your expectations accordingly. But if you offer the right service, this may be well worth the cost.
That said, the complaints about the parent company give us pause.
Recommendations
As mentioned above, we think this site might be worth a try to advertise your band, DJ, bartending service or kid’s party service. You can sign up with TheBash here.
However, you may also want to register with StageRush, a relatively new site aimed at helping you book your band. StageRush doesn’t charge to list. It simply imposes a commission on bookings.
If you’re a musician looking for extra work and you’re willing to teach, check out LessonFace, a great site for online music tutoring.
What their users say (from SiteJabber)
It took a while to start getting bookings on the site, but once it starts to work I got more than enough to pay for the advertising fee. You have really patient, don’t expect immediate results. It’s actually pretty cheap. If you get into the top ranking you will start getting leads.
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 we’ll 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.)
(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.
from the Better Business Bureau
I paid for an annual profile on The Bash. After ~10months, I realized I wasn’t using it to I went to cancel it so I wouldn’t be charged for another whole year. 1) There is no place on the website where I can cancel my own account 2) I’ve gone back and forth now 4x with a customer service *** who continues to try to get me to keep my profile up rather than honoring my request to cancel my account. Making it this hard to cancel a subscription should be illegal. I wouldn’t recommend this site to anyone.
Updated 1/28/2025
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