How it works.

A free page for every artist, venue and night, filled straight from the calendar they already keep. Fans fave the people and places they like and get everything they're playing in one email on a Monday morning. It's built by a working musician who got sick of posting the same gig four times.

Because it's the only true source. We can find gigs that are advertised in public, and we do, but we can't see the booking that was agreed at the bar last night, or the date that moved this morning. Only the artist and the venue know that, and they already keep it in a diary. Connect that diary once and your page, the venue's page and every fan's Monday email stay right without anyone typing anything twice. Put a gig in, it's on the site. Move it, it moves. Cancel it, it's gone.

On a computer, open calendar.google.com, click the cog, Settings, then your calendar in the left column. Scroll to Integrate calendar and copy the Secret address in iCal format. Paste it into Connect calendar on your dashboard. On a phone it works too, in a private browser tab rather than the Google Calendar app.

Yes, but not from the Google Calendar app, which doesn't show the link. Open a private browser tab, search for Google Calendar and sign in, and tap Cancel if your phone asks to open the app. Then it's the same five taps as on a computer: the cog, Settings, your calendar, Integrate calendar, and copy the Secret address in iCal format.

Open the Calendar app and tap Calendars at the bottom. Tap the ⓘ next to the calendar you want to share. Switch on Public Calendar, tap Share Link, then Copy. Go to your fave.rocks dashboard, tap Connect calendar, and paste it in. Only people with the link can see the calendar, it isn't listed anywhere.

Open the Calendar app and go to File, then New Calendar. Give it a name like Gigs. It appears in the left column. Right-click that calendar and choose Share Calendar. Tick Public Calendar and click Done. Now right-click the same calendar again and choose Copy URL. Go to your fave.rocks dashboard, click Connect calendar, and paste it in.

In Outlook on the web, open Settings, Calendar, then Shared calendars. Under Publish a calendar, pick the calendar, choose Can view all details, and click Publish. Copy the ICS link and paste it into Connect calendar on your dashboard.

No. Under Edit profile there's a section called Your diary. Type words like rehearsal or lesson and any entry containing them is ignored completely. Anything with wedding, private or function in it is spotted on its own, and you choose whether it shows as a bare private booking date or doesn't show at all. If you'd rather, a separate calendar just for gigs is the cleanest of all, and you connect only that one.

You put your email in and we send you a link. Tap the link, press the button on the page it opens, and you're in on that device for six months. No password to remember, nothing to reset.

Some email apps, Hotmail and Outlook especially, open links before you do, and a sign-in link only works once. We've built around that, but if you see it, just ask for a fresh link from fave.rocks/join. It takes a moment.

Nothing. Pages, calendars, the Monday email, requests, the fan wall and the poster are free, and they stay free. If you take a tip or sell a song through the site, fave.rocks keeps 5% of that payment. The one thing you can pay for is the website plan — your own web address, your own colours and the weekly poster or telly screen — at £20 a month or £200 a year, with an optional £49 to set it up for you. Nothing that's free now moves behind it.

One email on a Monday morning with every gig near you for the week ahead, plus every show that week from the artists and venues you've faved, wherever they're playing. Straight from their calendars, so it's never wrong. No algorithm, no other emails.

Follow. Tap the heart on any artist, venue or night and their dates go to the top of your Monday email, even when they're playing out of your area.

Only if you ask. By default you hear about live music and open mics. On your faves page you can tick comedy, DJs, or everything else your local puts on, and they'll come through too. The site is broad, your inbox isn't.

On What's on, pick a town or use your location, then use the chips: when, how far, which days of the week, free entry only, only my faves, and what kind of night. They all stack. Tuesday and Thursday within ten miles, free entry, is one tap each.

Most artists have one. Scan the code at the gig, snap a photo, and it goes straight onto their page. The artist can take any photo down.

Every email has a one-click unsubscribe at the bottom. No login, no questions.

Yes, and it's one line. Artists write Venue, Town, Postcode, all in the title, for example The Greyhound, Thames Ditton, KT7 0JR. The postcode is what makes certain it lands on the right pub, and you can find it by searching for the venue on fave.rocks. Playing the same place again? Copy the entry and paste it onto the new date. Venues write the act's name, for example The Fooz, spelt the way it is on the act's own page, and the gig goes on the act's page as well as the venue's. If the night has a name of its own, put it first and then the word at: Open Mic at The Greyhound, Thames Ditton, KT7 0JR, or Aaron's Jamboree at The Bloodhound, Chitterlington, CH21 4BZ. You can say what kind of night it is in brackets at the end, (open mic), (jam), (karaoke), (quiz) or (dj), and if you leave that off the site works it out from the words. Agencies write Agency presents Act at Venue, Town. Going along to somebody else's open mic or jam? Leave it out of your calendar: find the night on fave.rocks and put your name on its list, and you show on that night as playing. Coming to watch? Tap I'm going. Get the venue and the town in, set a real start time, and that's everything the site needs to put the gig on the right page, at the right spot on the map, and next to anything already listed for that night. It works because every artist and every venue writes their own gigs, so the information comes straight from the people who know, and if an artist and a venue ever put down something different, it shows, and it's easy to sort out.

Every gig in it appears on your page within twenty minutes, and on the venue's page, and in the Monday email of every fan nearby or who's faved you. Change a date in your diary and it changes everywhere. You never enter a gig on the site itself.

One line, the same way every time: Venue, Town. For example The Crown, Dorking. If you like, put your name in front: The Fooz at The Crown, Dorking. The venue name tells us where it is and lines it up with the venue's own page and anything already listed there; the town makes sure it's the right Crown; the calendar time does the rest. That's it. Write it that way every time and the site stays right on its own. If we can't tell which venue you mean, the gig lands in a short Confirm queue on your dashboard. Answer it once and every future entry with that name is matched on its own.

No. When you travel, your phone shows your diary in the local time, which can look alarming, but the gigs themselves haven't moved: your calendar stores each one as a fixed moment, and that is what we read. Nothing changes on your page and no venue is told anything. The one thing to watch is adding or editing a gig while you're away, because the phone can save it in the local time zone: 8pm typed in New York is 1am here. Set this before you go and it can't happen. On an iPhone: Settings, then Calendar, then Time Zone Override, and choose London. In Google Calendar: Settings, switch off Use device time zone, and set it to London.

We found one of your gigs advertised in public, so we made you a page with it on, ready for you to take over. Taking it over is free and takes a minute: sign in with your email and it's yours, gigs included. If you'd rather not, ignore it. The page only lists gigs that are already public.

Your dashboard gives you a QR code and an A4 sign to print. Fans scan it at the gig, search your repertoire, and request a song. It appears on a live screen you keep open on stage, and you tap Played. After a request they're asked if they'd like to tip, by card or phone, straight to you. fave.rocks keeps 5% of a tip.

Yes. Upload a track under Music, put a price on it, and it sells from your page. Leave the price blank and it's a free listen. We only hold MP3s, but if you upload a WAV we'll convert it for you. There's also a player you can embed on your own website.

Two reasons it can happen. YouTube Shorts aren't allowed, only full-length videos. And some videos have embedding switched off by their owner, in which case we show a thumbnail that links to YouTube instead. Connect your channel under Your site and new uploads flow in on their own.

Yes. On your dashboard, every open mic in Your listings has a Make this a night button. Tap it and the night gets its own page, hosted by you, with its own faves, its own QR and a sign-up list for acts. Every date with that name in your diary belongs to it, now and from every future sync.

The built-in list is the simple one: acts scan the QR, put their name down, and see the running order and their slot. You move people up and down, tick them off and add walk-ups. If your night runs in halves, gives each act a set number of songs, works to timed slots or wants a Randomise button, switch the night to the full version on your dashboard. It runs on The List, our sister app, and your printed QR keeps working.

Yes, all of it, for now: the page, the QR, the sign-up list, the Monday email to everyone who faves the night. We're building and strengthening the system and want it in as many rooms as possible. Down the line, running nights is likely to become part of a small hosting plan. Anyone hosting on fave.rocks before then will hear about it well in advance, from us, not from a surprise on the bill.

Yes, and you should: it's how people see what they're missing. Under Your site, add a featured video and any YouTube clips; they play on the night's page. Photos go on the wall: anyone at the night can scan the wall link and snap one straight onto the page, and you can hide any you don't want. Every date you've hosted shows the footage from that date too.

Every fan within 10 miles of a gig gets it in their Monday email, plus anyone who has faved the act or the venue wherever they are. A page on the website plan reaches fans within 20 miles instead, for the act's gigs or for everything at the pub.

Ask. Most people only put a word in when they're asked, and asking around is what a landlord or a booker does before they take anyone on. Under Word of mouth on your dashboard there's a message to post with your link, fave.rocks/r/your-name. On top of that, anyone who taps Going on one of your dates gets an email the next morning asking how it was, with the page a tap away. There are no stars, the words are the thing. You can hide one, you can't change what it says.

On your dashboard there's a Tell your fans card with a message written for you, a Copy button, a Share button and your poster. The site only works when the people who come to see you are on it, so this is the one thing worth doing on day one.

No, and please don't. Sign the band up with one email address that everyone in the band can read, a shared Gmail is perfect. There's no password. Whoever wants to sign in on their phone asks for a link at fave.rocks/join, it lands in the shared inbox, they tap it, and that phone is signed in for six months. The next person does the same on theirs. One page, one address, as many devices as you like, and nothing to manage.

Yes, and that's the point. Whoever keeps the band's diary shares that calendar to the page once. Everyone else just puts gigs in the diary as they always have.

One page. Your act type and genres are on the page, and the gig titles say the rest. Two pages just splits your fans in half.

What's on, straight from your calendar and from the acts who play for you. Opening hours, address and directions. Your menu as a PDF or a photo, your food and drink, what the place has, from a beer garden to a stage with a PA. Bookings, private hire, and a Play here section for the musicians who want to play your room. Only the bits you fill in appear.

No, that's what we want. Every diary entry is read and filed as a gig unless the words say otherwise. Quiz, bingo, DJ, comedy, brunch, tasting, yoga, psychic night and so on are recognised on their own. If we file one wrongly, there's a dropdown next to it on your dashboard to correct it, once. Fans only ever hear about the kinds of night they asked for, so your curry club never lands in a music fan's inbox.

No. A gig from an act's calendar appears on your page on its own. If both of you have it in your diaries, we show it once. If one's wrong, there's a Not ours button on your dashboard.

The part of your page for musicians. Say whether you book live music, which nights, what works in the room, and how it works, sets, start time, pay, PA. Acts can then ask to play through your page, and every message lands in your inbox with Play here in the subject line.

Yes. Pick Coffee shop as what kind of place you are and that's what shows above your name. You get coffee and cake, laptop friendly, alcohol-free and daytime live music as things to tick, and daytime sets under Play here. Everything else works the same.

We make a page whenever a gig at a venue is advertised in public, so fans can find it. It's yours to claim, free, and claiming it is how you take control of what's on it. It only ever lists gigs that are already public.

A page for an open mic, a jam night, a showcase or a club night, separate from the venue and the host. It has its own dates, its own faves, its own QR code, and a sign-up list that acts add themselves to from the door.

If you're an artist with the night in your own diary, tap Make this a night next to it on your dashboard. If we've already made a page for your night from a public listing, open it and tap Yes, it's mine. Either way it's yours in a minute.

Print the night's QR. Acts scan it at the door and add themselves. You run the order from your phone. The list resets for each date.

Join as an artist under the agency's name and connect your calendar. Then type every gig as Agency presents Act at Venue, Town, for example GoodGigs presents The Fooz at The Crown, Dorking. That line puts the gig on the act's own page, and on the venue's page, credited booked by GoodGigs, and lists it on your page under On the books. Your diary overrides anything we'd found for that night. If the act later connects their own calendar, theirs wins and yours steps back, so there are never two copies.

No. Acts keep their own pages and their own logins. You never need theirs, and they never need yours.

Yes, and it's the single most useful thing an agency can do here. Your diary covers the gigs you book. The act's own calendar covers everything else they play, and once they connect it, theirs takes over from yours automatically. So the more of your roster who claim their page and connect a calendar, the more accurate your gigs look, and the more fans hear about them every Monday. There's a ready-to-send message for your roster on the For agencies page. It costs nothing, for you or for them.

Every gig you book is advertised accurately, on the act's page and the venue's page, credited to you, and pushed to fans near each venue in their Monday email. Venues see an agency going the extra mile with their gigs. Acts see their bookings out there without lifting a finger. All of it free.