Live Music

Atrios linked an article about the way the current economic climate has affected ticket prices and concert venues.

The music business certainly is undergoing some big changes. Ticketmaster sends me emails with lists of bands that are going to be performing in my town, but it's really not what I'm looking for.

Here's an idea for somebody that has a few bucks and knows how to create robust web sites.

I'd like to be able to visit a web site where I could provide some parameters of music I'm interested in, then get a list of bands. Optionally, I could sort this list by bands that will be performing in my city in the future... even if it's local bands that play at bars. Additionally, there would be embedded players where I could click and hear a song, or at least samples of songs from the band so I could decide if they sound interesting to me. It would be nice to be able to buy tickets and print them out right then, but just having the other stuff would be valuable to me. If I couldn't buy tickets, I'd at least want to know how much it's going to cost at the door.

The way you populate the web site is by the bands themselves. They create a profile for their band, fill in the parameters (music styles, etc.), upload some sample content, list their performing schedules, and the web site would compile it all into the searchable data base. If the site became popular, it could be the defacto standard for live music hosting and run ticketmaster right out of business.

I'm not talking about seeing big name acts. There are very few of the high profile acts that I'll pay to see now. This isn't about name recognition or record sales. It's about adapting to the changing world of recorded music. At some point (soon I think), the model of gold records and stadium tours will no longer exist. We need a tool where we can decide on a Friday afternoon that we want to see a band that night, do some clicking and find a place in town that has what we want to hear and then go.

I'd make the web site free also.. and maybe get a cut of ticket sales, or some other way to get a small percentage as a referral fee.. and have some advertising on the site.

If I wasn't incredibly lazy, I'd learn how to do it myself and set this up. Or maybe it already exists.. and if it does, somebody give me link please.