Concertgoers: how do you stay in the loop?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Has anyone found a sure-fire method of being in the loop for when one of your favorite musicians is playing live in your area?

I once tried Ticketmaster’s notifications and (somewhat consistently with other Ticketmaster experiences), I found it maddeningly worthless. I also hear about stuff on the local NPR music station, but that’s usually chancier, since I don’t listen 24/7.

After missing and/or narrowly missing some dearly beloved acts in the past couple weeks, I’m on a mission to find a better solution. Preferably one that will notify me of bands that I specify when they are in my area.

Does the Dope have any recommendations?

2

Pollstar is a way to go, or actually going to your favorite bands’ individual websites and signing up for tour updates…

As a fellow live music lover, I think its well worth the few min. it takes, so as not to potentially miss out on something good.

3

I’ve always used Pollstar, and when my pool of artists I’d pay to see got smaller, I switched to just following them from their own newsletters. (So, I am agreeing with MPB)

There’s also an app/site called iLike which is on Facebook, and will send reminders to your Facebook account - or you can just sign up right on their site.

I think with Pollstar, venues have to submit their schedules. Artists can’t submit themselves. I’m not sure how iLike does it. Probably steals their info from Pollstar :slight_smile:

4

I just keep an eye on the listings and ads in the local alternative newspaper.

5

Living in a mid market area (Salt Lake City) there are only a handful of venues that 95% of my favorite acts play when here in town; these places all have websites and I check them out on a semi regular basis to see who is coming around…

If you live in a big live music market (NYC, Austin, San Francisco, New Orleans) it may be overwhelming to keep up with all the choices and options for great live music (a problem I certainly wish SLC had)

6

Are they on facebook? I get updates from several performers this way.

7

You could try creating a last.fm account, if you’re into alternative music. Often, if you’ve listened to an artist, updates will pop up on the side saying that there’s a show in your area and how many people on last.fm are attending. Essentially, it’s word of mouth online.

8

Depending on the artist, news of upcoming shows breaks pretty reliably on fan-based message boards. Members on the boards have pretty wide tastes, and they get news from other boards. There’s a pretty big grapevine on the web, if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor.

9

I downloaded iConcertCal for my iTunes which lets me know when anybody in my playlist is playing within 100 miles of my location or if they have an new album scheduled for release.

I’m sure there is much better out there, but I’m not too picky.

10

Most bands these days have mailing lists or Facebook fangroups and such.

11

I use an RSS reader and subscribe to the events feed for my area. For example:
http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/user/MyUserName/eventsysrecs.rss

12

Facebook definitely helps.

I also am on the mailing list for all of my favorite venues in town, so I know who’s playing at each one every month.

Alternative newspapers. Record store flyers. Friends who like the same artists, or know some of the ones I like.