Band tracker and concert reminder service Songkick is venturing into new territory on Tuesday. The site is launching a feature that lets users chronicle all the shows they've ever been to. Think of it like a virtual shoe box for your old ticket stubs.
Users can either add these shows by hand, or search from a database that includes more than a million concerts. Each show page includes things like set lists, photos, videos, and posters. This information has been aggregated from various Web sources, including blogs, band pages, and event sites. If users have their own videos or photos, they can also be uploaded directly to the service. Not included, however, is a way to link to audio recordings.
Concert pages include set lists, photos, videos, and the option to say whether you were there.
(Credit: CNET)In a meeting with CNET last week, Songkick CEO and co-founder Ian Hogarth told me the company's information-gathering tool, which finds this show information from around the Web, will continue to improve as users add more gig dates and titles. These same users are also able to submit their own sites, or music blogs they frequent, to help the tool acquire more information for the database.
Hogarth compared Songkick's efforts with IMDB in trying to create a simple database that lets people see all of a band's past work in one place. It also creates a mash of all the other bands they've collaborated with, letting users do a "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," but with individual band members.
The new "gigography" feature lets you see all of a band's previous performances in one place.
(Credit: CNET)Along with shows, Songkick is adding festivals. These are just like individual concert pages, except they're for reoccurring music events. This allows for a timeline of all the previous shows in a festival series, so you can go back and see the performers and related news from each of those events.
So what's the incentive for spending the time to add all of these shows to Songkick's database? Hogarth says he hopes people come to the site with the same enthusiasm they have for keeping old concert tickets in a shoe box or scrapbook. "It's a way to relive some of the coolest experiences you've had," he says. "It's an enormous amount of pride for some people, and our system provides a very visible way to have it. More so than your bedroom."
Hogarth says that further down the line, that same information is what will help people be introduced to other Songkick users and discover music they may like. In the meantime, Hogarth hopes it will help jog faded memories and let you rediscover that awesome 15-minute guitar solo you forgot seeing 20 years ago.
Music giant Live Nation announced on Thursday that it has partnered with SMG, the operator of 216 stadiums, arenas, convention centers, and concert halls, in an agreement that lasts through 2011.
The announcement is in anticipation of Live Nation's ticketing service, which launches in January and will sell tickets for venues that Live Nation already represents as a promoter as well as third-party partners. Under the terms of the agreement, Live Nation will be the exclusive outlet for SMG's tickets; Live Nation expects the SMG deal to raise its potential ticketing volume by 25 percent.
Live Nation recently ended its ticketing contract with Ticketmaster, owned by InterActiveCorp before CEO Barry Diller spun it off into a separate company. When Live Nation Ticketing launches, the two companies will be direct competitors.
Live Nation has also started offering "360" representation for artists, taking the place of a music label and touring manager, as well as a promoter.
Bands in Town is a simple ticket finder for upcoming concerts. It figures out where you're connecting from and filters the names of artists with shows in your area, complete with links to buy tickets and subscribe to a band for future tour dates.
Last.fm users can plug in their credentials to whittle down the ginormous tag cloud or artists. Doing this also highlights and suggests the ones you like or it thinks you'd like. Even without a Last.fm account, it's a far superior browsing experience compared to parsing your local paper.
To further aid the search, there's a set of simple sliders on the left-hand side where you can dial up or down how much you want to pay, and how far you're willing to drive to go see a show. There are also filters to set whether you're looking to see just indie and unsigned artists, or a high profile pop band.
Speaking of the bands, each artist has its own page that hosts a small biography, a "mix tape" compiled of streaming music, and a list of upcoming shows complete with links to selected ticket sellers. Missing, however, is some of that all-important information like when you should be getting up at 5 a.m. to buy tickets for a show.
Compared to Songkick (coverage), Bands in Town is missing the integration with music jukebox software like iTunes to figure out what you're interested based on your listening habits. Of course this won't be an issue for heavy users of Last.fm, but iPod users with a few years of rating history will be left out of the loop.
Disclaimer: Last.fm is part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes Webware.
Bands in Town does just what it says by telling you what concerts are coming to your area. It also links up with Last.fm to let you listen to a band before getting tickets.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
iLike, the social music service that rose to popularity with the launch of Facebook's developer platform last year, is getting bigger. The company announced that membership has surpassed 30 million users, and that it'll soon be getting the buzz out even more by letting developers put music on their sites through an iLike application programming interface.
But more importantly (i.e. on the money front), iLike has launched an ad platform specifically geared toward bands and concert promoters. Audiences can be targeted by music preferences and location, rather than keywords, which iLike says will give advertisers a huge advantage. (Think about it: how many people who quote Britney Spears on their social-networking profiles actually would want to go to one of her concerts?)
Finally, iLike has launched the partnership with Rhapsody that was announced earlier this month. Members can now stream songs in full length (rather than 30-second previews) 25 times, and after that they're invited to register for Rhapsody accounts. That's currently only live on iLike.com, but the company is working on integrating it with its wildly popular Facebook app soon.
This post was updated at 12:02 PM on February 28 to confirm that the FX Network broadcast of the Operation MySpace concert is April 12, not March 12.
MySpace is packing its bags for Kuwait.
The social network, a division of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, will be holding a music and comedy event on March 10 for U.S. Armed Forces troops stationed in the small Middle Eastern country. Called "Operation MySpace," the concert will feature pop acts The Pussycat Dolls and Jessica Simpson, rock bands Disturbed and Filter, electronic artist DJ Z-Trip, and comedian Carlos Mencia. MySpace co-founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe will be on hand to host the event, which the social network has coordinated in conjunction with the Department of Defense's Armed Forces Entertainment division and its America Supports You program.
"For years troops stationed all over the world have utilized MySpace as a lifeline to communicate with their loved ones back home," Anderson said in a statement from MySpace. "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to thank them in person and bring along the entire MySpace community."
For those not present, the concert will be live-streamed on the Web (on the 10th at 11 a.m. Pacific time); MySpace has created a profile for Operation MySpace where visitors are encouraged to leave messages for the troops overseas in both text and video format. It will also mark the first time that MySpace has webcast an event in high definition. On April 12, a condensed one-hour version of the three-hour concert will be broadcast on News Corp.'s FX cable channel.
"We're so excited to be performing for the troops and supporting our Armed Forces overseas," a statement from the steamy pop group The Pussycat Dolls read. "They'd better get ready...the desert's about to get a lot hotter!"
Indeed, the combination of Pussycat Dolls, Jessica Simpson, and Carlos Mencia might be, ahem, a bit much for some audiences. But regardless of what you think of the quality of the acts, it's for a good cause--in high definition.
Urban events site Going.com, which targets party-friendly 20-somethings with a hipster slant, announced earlier this week that it has expanded into local event ticketing. This means that promoters and event hosts on Going can now sell tickets for their concerts, benefits, parties, and other social get-togethers through the site.
The structure is much like a standard ticket site's "will-call" option; no paper tickets are mailed. "You go to the venue or the place of the event," Going CEO Evan Schumacher explained in an interview with CNET News.com, "and we tell (you) to bring your credit card or ID."
Just like the rest of Going.com, the new ticketing service is limited to New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. And Schumacher assured me that it won't be a free-for-all due to security concerns.
"The first thing (promoters) do is they have to go through a registration process, which includes a credit card transaction validating that they are who they are, and that they represent the organization they say they represent," he said. He estimated that this approval process should take a day or two. "We actually reach out to the venue or the organization that they say they're selling tickets either for or at, and make sure that this is an accurate representation as well."
In other words, it'd be difficult for you to use Going to monetize your next house party.
And, he added, ticket resellers will not be able to use Going to scalp tickets purchased from, say, Ticketmaster at inflated prices. "We don't get involved with tickets that are at major venues," he explained. "It's not a marketplace like an eBay."
Going has cited Pollstar Magazine figures that put the U.S. ticket sales market at $3.6 billion and rising. That revenue potential is why a relatively niche-based events site is willing to take this kind of risk.
"Every ticketing site has to deal with fraud prevention," he said. "People will try all kinds of things, I'm sure, and that's why we're focusing on a high-touch validation at this phase."
(Credit:
Me.dium)
RockMe. has got to the be the only five-day music festival where you won't pay for tickets. It is social-networking site Me.dium's attempt to rock your world, and the only thing you need to get in is your Web browser. (Of course, you still have to bring your own drinks.)
RockMe., which runs from September 18 through September 22, 2007, will feature bands, music video competitions, and the world's safest mosh pit--it's virtual. More important to Me.dium, the RockMe. festival will provide plenty of opportunities for band members and music lovers to swap fond memories of choice lyrics and drum solos using Me.dium's service.... Read more
In a move that further shapes its image as an MTV-like pop-culture hub as well as a social network, News Corp.'s MySpace.com has announced that it will be sponsoring a concert tour this fall.
Appropriately called the MySpace Music Tour, the series of shows will kick off October 16 in Seattle and will host more than 30 performances before winding down in Las Vegas around Thanksgiving.
The headlining acts for the tour will be two artists who have built up large followings on the social-networking site--geeky pop band Hellogoodbye and emo act Say Anything.
The tour will also include the Japanese punk band Polysics, which has been signed to the new MySpace Records label, as well as yet-to-be-announced guests.
In a statement from the company, Say Anything frontman Max Bemis is quoted as saying, "We are stoked as beans to be on the first MySpace tour with Hellogoodbye!! It's going to rock!"
MySpace users will be able to prepurchase tickets starting Friday. Those who are not MySpace members will have to wait until September 6.
The site has not released a full list of concert dates or venues, but those will presumably be available by the time sales open. Sales will be conducted through a branded community page on MySpace, which will also feature photo galleries, contests and band blogs.
UPDATE: MySpace has released a full list of tour cities. The Polysics will be opening for the shows through the Allentown show on Halloween:
10/16: Seattle, Wash.
10/17: Portland, Ore.
10/19: Magna, Utah
10/20: Denver
10/21: Wichita, Kan.
10/22: Milwaukee, Wis.
10/24: Chicago, Ill.
10/25: Detroit
10/26: Covington, Ky.
10/27: TBA
10/28: Atlantic City, N.J.
10/30: New York
10/31: Allentown, Pa.
11/1: Providence, R.I.
11/2: Gettysburg, Penn.
11/3: Emmitsburg, Md.
11/4: Raleigh, N.C.
11/6: Orlando, Fla.
11/7: Miami Beach, Fla.
11/9: Houston
11/10: Dallas
11/11: San Antonio
11/13: Tucson, Ariz.
11/14: Tempe, Ariz.
11/16: San Francisco
11/17: San Diego
11/18: Los Angeles
11/19: Los Angeles
11/20: Anaheim, Calif.
11/23: Las Vegas, Nev.
It's early February. Do you know where your favorite band is?
Dude, the Roots are coming.
iConcertCal does. This free iTunes plug-in for both Mac OS X and Windows scans your iTunes library and lets you know when the bands you listen to are coming to town.
After installing iConcertCal, the iTunes visualizer becomes a calendar that lists local concert dates for bands in your library. Clicking on each listing in the calendar lets you buy tickets, and changing the city and state brings up personalized listings for other cities.
Since a co-worker sent out a link to this free plug-in last week, I've been hooked. It eliminates the hassle of having to check local papers and Web sites to see who's coming to your neck of the woods and the need to sign up for an individual artist's mailing list. It's also a good reason to clean up those ID3 tags.
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