Our values
Our values mark out Encore as different from other booking platforms in the music industry.
For us they’re not just trendy buzzwords. We use them to guide everything we do - whether that’s internal decisions like hiring new team members, or the daily conversations we have with our musicians and customers.
Overall, they all contribute towards our mission: to build a modern platform which genuinely cares for its musicians, while also making live musician experiences accessible to more people than ever before.
Human Authenticity
Almost every member* of the Encore team is a musician themselves, and everyone is committed to helping other musicians craft successful careers. We pride ourselves on offering excellent support to every musician and client that uses the platform.
* We’re still trying to persuade our developer to take up the guitar again...
Modern Professionalism
From baby showers, to weddings, to 80th birthday parties - musicians are there to help us mark some of the most important moments in our lives. We demand the highest level of respect and professionalism from our team members and musicians to make sure these moments are happily remembered for years to come.
Unique experiences
What is it that makes us devote so much of our time to promoting live music? We believe that seeing and hearing music live creates some of the most meaningful experiences in our lives. The experience of hearing your favourite song played as your first dance, the experience of seeing a strolling guitarist get your mother-in-law on the dance floor - experiences which would never be possible with recorded music. We’re working to create more of these unique experiences because ultimately we think that the world will be a better place for it.
Music for all
We believe that anyone should be able to book brilliant live musicians for their events, wherever they are, whoever they are, whenever they are. We’re building a platform which makes it simple for anyone in the UK to book musicians.
Community
Music is at its heart a form of communication. We believe open communication with our members is the best policy for ensuring we continue to build the platform working musicians need. We hold regular events for our members so we can speak in person, have a bustling online forum, and update our members on all important changes to the site.
Encore musicians describe what it’s like to be a member of the platform
Accountability
A lot of companies who claim to be driven by strong values and ethics undermine this by refusing to reveal data on the way they operate.
The music industry in particular suffers from a lack of transparency surrounding pay and we want to help demystify the subject by being clear about how musicians on Encore are compensated.
In our values, we made it clear that musicians being paid fairly was a key part of our mission at Encore. Below you’ll find a breakdown of how we put that value of fair payment into action.
Fair rates
Since launching bookings in 2015, we’ve dramatically improved the average rate musicians are paid on Encore. These rates are calculated as the average take-home fee per musician, excluding the Encore Service fee and travel expenses.
| Soloist fee | Group fee (per person) | |
| 2016 | £171 | £152 |
| 2017 | £216 | £161 |
| 2018 | £213 | £178 |
| 2019 | £263 | £244 |
| 2020* | £250 | £234 |
| 2021 | £292 | £278 |
Average annual increase:
- Soloist: 11%
- Group Fees: 13%
* Note: fees dropped in 2020 due to the pandemic. As might be expected, customers tended to pay less for virtual bookings than bookings where the musician was physically present.
Our Service fee model
We want Encore to be free for any musician to use, so we only ever charge musicians when they receive a booking through the platform.
The Service fee amount is always transparently displayed to musicians when they send a quote to clients so they know how much goes to Encore and how much they’re taking home. You can learn about how we developed our business model in more detail here.
Organisations we like
In the UK there are a number of other organisations who we really admire that share our mission to improve the lives of working musicians. In the past we’ve put on events with representatives from the Incorporated Society of Musicians and Help Musicians UK, and met with members of the Musicians Union to ask for their insights on our plans for the platform.
Here’s our CEO James and Head of Artist Relations Jonny after they completed our last fundraiser for the charity Help Musicians UK - the (very cold) London Santa Run in 2018!
