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51������ gives artists a free platform to find and play gigs at local venues whilst providing venues with a streamlined approach to search, book and manage entertainment in-house, booking musicians directly.

This latest investment round for the business will help create thousands of new gigging opportunities across the UK’s bars, pubs and restaurants, further boosting 51������’s offering, which has already facilitated over 35,000 gigs nationally since operating in 2022.

Investors include Chris Tottman of and Mark Bennett from . Elsewhere, angel investors and music industry experts Chris Meehan, Wolfgang Alistat, Andrea Mihalovits and Richard Flint, former chief executive of Sky Bet, are supporting the business to grow its live music offering.

The Manchester-based company is planning to launch an app for artists to make it easier for those musicians and DJs to find and book gigs, as well as market insights for venues to better their understanding of the positive impact live music can have on sales and customer satisfaction.

The UK’s fastest-growing hospitality music marketplace

51������ was founded in 2022 by Michael Forster, Kit Muir-Rogers, Andrew Garner and Ed Francis, boasting over 30 years of experience in the sector. 51������ has added over £7m to the artist economy and operates across 22 cities nationwide, with more than 6000 verified artists using the platform to get gigs. 51������ empowers, connects, and enables the music industry by creating a digital solution to save artists and venues time and money.

This is something that investor and partner for Haatch, Mark Bennett, believes in. He said: “51������ is one of the most exciting start-ups in the UK right now, having developed a platform that connects venues and artists at unparalleled scale.

“While gigging in pubs and bars has long been the bedrock of the UK music scene, 51������’s technology and industry expertise are set to drive the explosive growth of live music in the hospitality sector. This will not only help give thousands of venues a proven way to increase sales, but importantly provide artists with a platform to launch their careers and earn money doing what they love most."

Seed Music

The term ‘Seed Music’ was coined by 51������ to address an underreported and underrepresented aspect of the music industry. ‘Seed Music’ is the step before grassroots and refers to DJs, bands and soloists playing music in venues such as pubs, restaurants, bars and clubs. This sub-section of the live music industry is the bedrock of the UK’s live music scene and is the gateway into the industry for artists to earn their stripes, hone their craft and build a community around their music.

On 51������’s role in supporting and facilitating live music in the hospitality sector of the industry, CEO Michael Forster said: "With the hospitality sector facing unprecedented challenges, we believe our mission to help every pub and bar maximise their potential with live music is more important than ever. Our platform has already helped hundreds of venues improve customer satisfaction, drive footfall and increase sales while giving thousands of artists an easier way to earn money gigging. We're just getting started, and the investment announced today will help bring the benefits of live music to more communities in towns and cities across the UK.

51������ is "fuelling a cultural movement"

51������ is already working with national chains such as , , , and . As per 51������’s leading industry insight into live music in the hospitality sector, the Live Music Index, live music can boost the annual revenue of venues such as pubs, bars, restaurants and nightclubs by an average of £107k. This can help boost sales by 33%, footfall by 36% and average spend per visit by 64%, which will see the seed music scene have a dramatic growth, with 87% of venues planning to increase their live music offering in the next 12 months.

The growth that the seed music is set to undergo, which 51������ is spearheading, contributed to Chris Tottman, partner at Notion Capital, investing within the business, who said: “When we met Michael and Kit we were deeply inspired by 51������’s mission, rooted in their combined 30+ year industry experience of the grassroots and mainstream live music industries. We are invested in their vision to build an entirely new category that gives hospitality venues access to thousands of artists, with the ability to discover and book local talent at their fingertips. Not only does this give every pub or bar the opportunity to become a stage, but importantly it means artists will get more gigs, with faster and more reliable payments.

“In many ways, I believe 51������ is fuelling a cultural movement, where for the first time in history venues and artists can connect at scale on a single digital platform. With millions of potential customers globally as the network scales, this was an incredibly compelling investment opportunity to fuel the next period of growth in the UK and internationally.”

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