found out one of my fav bands added more dates to their tour by driving past an electronic billboard that i glanced at right before it changed that i was 70% certain was their album cover, prompting me to google them and find out why they were on 0.5 seconds of a billboard. this can't be it
i am just signed up to the newsletters of like every venue in nyc, which tbh sucks ass, but i also use songkick which is extremely useful for finding when bands i like are playing
Can totally relate. I’m from Toronto so Alt weeklies used to keep me informed and now that they’ve gone extinct the whole system is fucked. There’s got to be a better way!
Songkick is really good for this! You can put in locations to track and connect your Spotify, then it'll tell you when bands you like are in town. Works well for me!
The hardest thing is to try and see who’s in town somewhere when you’re traveling. Spotify will track bands you like coming to your town, and Ticketmaster can show you a list of 200 artists playing over one weekend in NYC but there’s no way to easily combine/filter the two lists
I search venue websites and subscribe to a couple of their newsletters, which helps a lot. In Milwaukee it is a little easier because there's one big venue group (five separate places) with a show calendar on their website and then two solid indie places, but I also check on them every week or so.
Ticket sites have for some reason abdicated an advertising role and are solely for servicing. Seems like an easy market for them to slide into? Probably a mob thing.
Follow people on whatever you stream music on to get notifications of tours that way. Follow bands on instagram to get invited to secret fans only chats. Follow people on bandsintown.
If you do use Spotify dont buy tix thru them bc they’ll up charge for commission for themselves. I imagine apple music/tidal does the same. Buy from the links musicians post.
I'm going to Europe in a couple months and wanted to see if I might cross paths with any bands I like. Had a bitch of a time finding venue websites via google. I ended up looking up bands I like on https://setlist.fm to see which venues they've played in particular cities in the past and worked from there.
Not sure I'm reading this properly, BUT I do know think it's been difficult finding precise information regarding ticketing & venues for artists outside of their direct websites & social media
Only way I’ve been able to stay on top of that is by checking out the band’s website weekly (always checking NIN & DEFTONES) lol it feels primitive but kinda cool to go to a real website to find info instead google
I'll usually check the website of a bar or venue where I've seen a band or two that I like. Most still keep listings, though I hate how some have moved that sort of thing to social media and you have to guess which one they're active on
This is what makes me so mad about all the data I give to The Internet: barely any of it is used for our benefit. They can't figure out which bands I listen to and sell me tickets when they're playing nearby? Why the hell not?
I have a handful of local aggregators I follow (Chicago) and obsessively check the websites of venues I like for listings. I will say it seems harder because a lot is IG only which I'm not on and media collapse lessens tour announcement news outside the big ones for sure
Having to put in the effort in news ways to keep up with things very much is kind of a "get with the times" thing imo, not being on IG even just to lurk for announcements feels like obstinacy for me (I'm 30)
Agree with @beefhusker84.bsky.social, BandsInTown is the best I’ve found. It’ll scan your music library and then let you know when shows are coming up.
(I am old, and miss just reading the local alt-weekly. Miss you, Boston Phoenix)
I've used Bands in town. You can add a bunch of bands to your list, and you'll get notifications when they're playing near you, plus other communications. It's not perfect, but it's worked pretty well so far.
I really think the whole resale market bs has destroyed it. It seems like everything is bought up and then resold a week after pre-sales start. If all the tickets are paid for, that's all the venue owners care about and no reason to continue promoting
Search for the band on https://pollstar.com. I’ve been touring for a little over 10 years. It’s uncanny how pollstar can know about shows before the band and crew does.
at the risk of outing myself as Old, it does seem that way yes, we need to bring back record stores with bulletin boards listing all acts coming to town.
After hearing about too many of my favorite bands being in the area only after the tickets have sold out, I had to set up a bunch of google alerts. I hates it! Everything has extra steps now.
Gotta just follow every band you like on IG and have Bandsintown synced to your spotify. That and I routinely just look at the schedule for all the venues I like. So much more leg work than it was even 5 years ago.
Came to say this; been using Songkick for years and it has worked great. You can also use it to search specific regions if you're ever traveling and want to see who's playing
i'm on a bunch of mailing lists for different local venues that send me their upcoming concert schedules, and i've also used bands in town to look up bands. but sometimes i still find out a band i like played a show and i missed it, it's so frustrating.
Comments
Spotify: You live in Chicago now permanently? Done.
Me: No, I just want to see who’s play-
Spotify: [sends email about United Center tickets going on sale in September]
https://safeinacrowd.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Minneapolis/s/4hDKQedZWw
Ironically radio stations are getting better at helping with this
And...Riverdance?
January 29th for NIN, Aug 8th for Shinedown, and May 30th for Riverdance, all in Seattle. Amazing.
(I am old, and miss just reading the local alt-weekly. Miss you, Boston Phoenix)