Songkick Launches New Concert Recommendation Site
Recommends live shows and provides one-click access to sixteen US and
UK ticket vendors
LONDON (Billboard Publicity Wire via Business Wire EON) March 18, 2008 --
Songkick, a startup focused on providing resources and recommendations
for live music performances, today unveiled the industry’s
first comprehensive live music recommendation site targeted at the live
music events market. Songkick scans the web, blogosphere and a user’s
music library, and alerts users whenever a band that they like or may
like is playing in their area. For every concert listed, Songkick
provides one-click access to ticket vendors, providing convenient price
comparison for music fans.
“Just about everyone enjoys music, yet so many
people don’t go to concerts regularly because
it’s tedious to keep up with local show
listings, tour dates and where to buy tickets,”
says Ian Hogarth, Songkick CEO and co-founder. “Songkick
wants to change the way people think about their Friday nights by making
it as easy to find a good show as it is to find a good movie.”
Founded by three young entrepreneurs that love music but found a
surprising lack of online tools for discovering live shows, Songkick
aims to become the default destination for music enthusiasts interested
in discovering and attending live shows.
"As passionate as people are about music, there is a huge hole in the
tech market for discovering live music," comments Carla Thompson, senior
analyst at Guidewire Group. "Songkick is the only site I've seen that
attempts to appeal to the mass consumer and—through
several innovative tools—creates more music
lovers out of their audience. They have added a unique semantic layer to
the discovery of live music."
Initially funded in 2007 by a seed round from technology accelerator Y
Combinator, Songkick today also announced it has received investment
from a select group of angels in the US and UK, co-lead by Saul Klein,
founding partner at The Accelerator Group (TAG) and Jeff Clavier,
founder and managing partner of Softech VC, with participation from Dan
Porter (SVP Virgin, co-founder of Ticketweb), Peter Read (Music Nation),
Betaworks (Andrew Weissman and John Borthwick), and other undisclosed
investors.
“Live music is the fastest growing segment of
an industry facing massive shifts in consumer behavior. Concerts are
loved by fans, critical for artists to build a loyal base, and
increasingly interesting as a revenue stream for labels,”
said Saul Klein founding partner at TAG and partner at Index Ventures. “We
were excited by the market opportunity as well as the passionate team
behind Songkick. They are true music lovers who want to make live music
more accessible and enjoyable for people all over the world.”
The Time for Live Music is Now
Songkick arrives at a critical time as the music industry shifts toward
the live music market as sales of recorded music fall and labels battle
over digital rights management. According to Forbes, in 2007,
nearly 75 percent of top musicians’ income
came from touring alone. Additionally, concert industry trade
publication Pollstar reported the US concert ticket market alone
was estimated at $3.9 billion in 2007, an eight percent growth in North
American primary concert ticket sales, with the majority of growth
coming from the bottom — the millions of
smaller, often unrecorded bands that make up what Hogarth refers to as “the
long tail of live music.”
Songkick Features
Designed by music enthusiasts, Songkick was created to make finding good
gigs easier. The site includes a variety of features including:
-
Concert recommendations – Based on
the songs you have in your music library, your location and the bands
you’ve asked Songkick to track, Songkick is
able to recommend shows in your area, including gigs that you might
not know about but would probably enjoy. Suddenly your Friday nights
don’t seem so empty anymore.
-
Tour tracking – Never miss another
performance! Songkick informs users by email whenever their favorite
bands come to town. A downloadable plug-in will scan the user’s
music library and add all artists to the tour tracker instantly.
-
One click tickets - Songkick has direct links to ticket
inventory from 16 vendors across the US and UK, making price
comparisons and purchases a click away.
-
Battle of the bands – A line graph
comparison of a band’s relative popularity
based on MySpace data points (page views, song plays, friends added),
Amazon sales, and blog buzz.
-
BandSense – Blog about music? Make
money from the bands you promote. Using a single line of Javascript
and semantic web technology, Songkick’s
machine learning algorithms identify when any band on tour is
mentioned in a blog. Songkick’s technology
inserts links to relevant tour information for these bands and keeps
track of ticket vendor referrals.
-
Songkick Widgets – Love to share
your taste in music? Tell everyone what tour you’re
patiently waiting for with a widget that gives instant access to tour
information for bands you’re tracking.
About Songkick.com
Songkick.com is a website focused on providing the single best concert
resource online, meeting fans’ live music
needs. By using Songkick.com, music fans stay informed of all their
favorite artists’ tours and get live music
recommendations for their area. For more information please visit http://www.songkick.com.
About The Accelerator Group
The Accelerator Group (TAG) works with entrepreneurs and world-class
venture firms to create and build fast-growing Internet services and
e-commerce businesses. It has a portfolio of over twenty companies
including Agent Provocateur, LoveFilm, Star Doll, Moo, Digivate and
GlassesDirect.
About SoftTech VC
SoftTech VC is an early stage venture capital firm that most recently
formed a $12M seed stage fund, SoftTech VC II. Jeff Clavier, one of the
most active Web 2.0 angel investors, announced the fund and its four
initial investments at the TechCrunch40 conference in September 2007.
SoftTech VC II is backed by a mix of institutional and private investors.
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