Songkick

So we launched a new version of Songkick a few weeks ago, on June 9. We worked hard on this brand new Songkick for about a year, and we hope you love it as much as we do! We’ve had some great write-ups about our launch, so check it out:

New York Times Gadgetwise blog
The Guardian, music section
Wired Magazine
Lifehacker

There’s plenty more where that came from, but we don’t wanna brag. We wanted to create the ultimate live music resource, putting every concert online. This is all so you can share your concerts: upcoming and past, and your memories of that gig, all your photos, videos, posters, the setlist, reviews, etc. That means you can create your own personal “gigography” of every concert you’ve ever been to and see who else was there. You can track other people to see what gigs your friends are going to and share yours.

We spent the last year collecting complete tour histories for thousands of artists, like Radiohead, Sonic Youth, AC/DC, and The Ramones. We launched 1 million concerts, and with your help we’re adding more every day! You can see which band an artist has played with the most, which city they’ve played in the most, etc.

We’ve listened to your feedback.

• You can track as many locations as you want, so if an artist comes to any of your tracked metro areas, we’ll let you know.
• You can also track venues, festivals, and other people!
• You can add and edit all concert info, including ticket links!
• You can add photos, YouTube videos, posters, and links to reviews about the show.
• And we’re still building a lot more stuff you’ve asked for, just keep your eyes peeled.

We’ve been really overwhelmed by some of the gigs you guys have been to. Here are some of our legendary users around the world; you guys have been to some incredible gigs and we’re flabbergasted that some of you have kept ticket stubs for them all.

raysgigs, 3804 past events at time of post.  Ray has been to the most gigs out of everyone on Songkick, and I’m mighty envious of many of them! Check out this BBC article about Ray’s legendary gig-going life!

Anikainlondon, 223 past events at time of post. Anika is near and dear to our heart. She started out as a superuser when we were in private beta, and we loved her enthusiasm so much, she’s now our intern! She goes to so many gigs, I’m agog (HA!), and she takes some great photos, so even if we can’t be there, we can still enjoy.

Chromewaves, 16 past events at time of post. I’m a big fan of Frank’s blog, Chromewaves, so it’s great to see some of his gorgeous photos on Songkick.

Iheartmusic, 347 past events at time of post. Shara’s been our NYC cheerleader. She’s responsible those great artist photos holding “We <3 Songkick” signs. See if you can find out who loves us! She diligently finds YouTube gems to add to Songkick and has added some great posters, too.

gloomboy, 441 past events at time of post. I can spend hours getting lost in the ticket stubs gloomboy’s added. I love that there are others out there like me who keep every single ticket stub. I just wish I’ve been to as many gigs!

mahoney, 469 past events at time of post. Couldn’t mention gloomboy without mahoney! Mahoney’s collection of ticket stubs is equally impressive.

We’ve also created a Facebook fan page, so follow us over there if you want to be keep up to date on all the exciting Songkick news that happens.

I just stumbled across a really awesome blog dedicated to gig photography: Live on 35mm.

This guy Valerio has been blogging his gig photos since October 2007, with a twist: all the photos are taken on 35mm black and white film. In his words:

Well, to differentiate and complicate my life, in this digital world, I am photographing artists using a couple of heavy, old, manual cameras loaded with rolls of 35mm black & white film. Yes, those silver halide emulsions posed on acetate that allow only 36 frames; that need to be carefully handled, developed, fixed, printed in a lightproof darkroom using smelly eco-unfriendly chemicals. All of this to get to a monochrome image, in an era where on digital cameras the same can be seen instantaneously, sent wireless and printed in seconds, eventually in splendid colours.

He’s also got a section with tips for other concert photographers with some great advice on strategies for different venues, lighting schemes, shooting backstage etc.

I’m a lame photographer and found this really inspiring. Thought I’d share it with you. Things like this inspire me to try a bit harder with my concert photos which often end up blurry/forgettable.

Hope you enjoy.

Sorry we’ve not been blogging much recently. We’re very hard at work on some big new features. Really can’t wait to share with you all.

For now here’s a snippet of news – ABC featured us in their On the Net feature along with Seesmic and Twitter Grader. I think it’s the first time we’ve been featured on the TV so was pretty exciting! Was cool to see the reaction it generated in some local Philly folks.

Thanks to Erin O’Hearn at ABC.

Back to those features…

Thanks to Devin for sending this along. Patrick Moberg, illustrator extraordinaire who came up with that totally brilliant Obama illustration, has come up with a funny set of “Animal Pharm” illustrations for rappers we love. Here are some of my favorites. Go see them all and buy a T-shirt!

Lil Mane

BTW, Lil Wayne is on tour and people love him. Check out the comments. <3 <3 <3

"Griz Markie"

And my personal fave…

"Piggie Smalls"

Piggie Smalls! Hilarious!

One of our most common feature requests has been to add listings for countries other than the UK and US.

We’re very excited to push some new crawlers live that add listings for Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

If you’re one of the people that requested from those countries, we’d love to hear your feedback – let us know any additional ticket vendors we should focus on, and whether we find you a show. If you’re a Songkick user in the UK or US taking a trip to Canada, Australia or New Zealand, check it out and see if you can find a gig while you’re there!

More than anything we care about providing you with the best information possible on upcoming gigs. We’ve also been working to add more ticket converage in the UK and US and now list tickets from over 25 different ticket providers. Some new ones include:

• Front Gate Tickets (great coverage in Austin)
• Indie Tickets (shows at small venues all over the US)
• TicketsWest (great west coast coverage)
• Stargreen (good coverage in London)
• Etix (more long-tail US-wide coverage)

If there’s someone you buy tickets through, who we don’t currently list on the site, leave a message in the comments and we’ll add it to our feature queue.

Next up: Europe!

I just came across this old vlog that features us, after a guy getting hit in the crotch by a phone, and stories on Ron Jeremy and a brothel in Prague. If that doesn’t get you to watch, I don’t know what will. Thanks for the mention, Mobuzz!

A few friends of ours are in town for Musexpo and we’re organising a little drinking and 10 pin bowling to celebrate.

Along with some local faces Ian Rogers and Steve Patch from Topspin and Anthony Volodkin from Hypemachine will be shining up their bowling shoes to show some steez down at Bloomsbury Bowling.

If you’d like to join us we’d love to see you at 830/9pm tomorrow night. We have a couple of lanes reserved but it wouldn’t hurt to call and reserve a lane for yourself since we have no idea how many people might show up.

See you then!

Ian