Hello dear blog readers. I’m sure you noticed already, but we launched a completely new design yesterday to much fanfare. I’m gonna toot our horn a little and point out some of the flattering press we’ve received so far:
TechCrunch: “Forget the Movies, Go to a Concert” (Oh yeah, you do that.)
PC Mag’s AppScout: “Songkick Makes Tracking Live Shows Easy”
VentureBeat: “Songkick’s Recommendation Engine: It Goes to 11″ (WE LOVE THIS TITLE!!)
Ian’s quoted stating the obvious in BusinessWeek: “SXSW: Where Tech Mingles with Music”. Still, it’s BusinessWeek! I wonder if the article would have been different if Sarah Lacy had interviewed him. Hmmm…
So while our site got a beautifying session, replete with artist photos (thanks Flickr!) and improved design, we also added a ton of new features, including
- venue pages (finallyyyyy)
- event pages
- brand new homepage that tests out our concert recommendation engine
- personalized concert recommendations for users
Some people have asked what the deal is with our concert recommendations. If you sign up for an account on Songkick, in addition to a Saved Shows and Your Artists on Tour section (based on what artists you’re tracking tours for), we have a new section where we recommend concerts based on your taste. Why is this different from other sites that recommend music, like Last.fm or Pandora? Well, because the set of artists on tour is not the same as the set of artists with recorded music out. Think of your friend’s up-and-coming band without a record deal who plays shows at your local bar. The recommendations are still in an experimental phase, and I know we won’t get it right all the time, but I (in my full snob mode) think they’re pretty good!
We hope the recommendations increase your chances of going to see a concert. No, you probably won’t go to a concert for a band you’ve never heard of at all, but I think more often than not, we’ll recommend concerts for a band you know and like, but forgot about and aren’t tracking, or a band you heard your friend rave about a couple weeks ago and might go check out, or you read the blogs posts about them, see that Gorilla Vs. Bear gave them a glowing review, check out the mp3 on Hype Machine, and decide to go see them. That’s how we hope it works.
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