Never Miss a Concert Again With Songkick

Like many music fans, Ian Hogarth, Pete Smith, and Michelle You thought it was too difficult to keep track of all their favorite bands and know when they were playing in town. Constantly checking band websites, browsing generic concert newsletters, and subscribing to venue mailing lists proved to be too much of a hassle – the three friends wanted their favorite artists' information in one place, not scattered across various channels. Hence, in 2007, they founded Songkick, an online database of gigs for music aficionados.

Initially launched on the Web and on iOS, Songkick tells users when their favorite bands are coming to their area. Concert alerts are personalized and sent early, so there's no need to worry about spam or missing out on a show. Using information from different venue websites, ticket vendors, and local newspapers, Songkick provides the most comprehensive database of upcoming gigs worldwide, including music festivals that artists are taking part in. Songkick can also be linked to Facebook, Google Music, Spotify, Last.fm, and Pandora; it will then make music recommendations based on the user's activities on those sites.

Last month, Songkick arrived on Android. Similar to its iOS counterpart, the Android app displays  show dates in your current location after scanning your music library, though you can manually add other locations as well. Songkick will also show the venue, map, and best ticket offers for each concert.

Moreover, Songkick wants to become the “definitive live music resource online”. So for one year, the team behind the startup compiled over a million tour dates from as early as the 1960s to the present. Now, users can share their experience and photos from concerts as well as talk to others who were also there. Songkick aims to not only be an app that tracks bands and gigs, but also serve as an extensive record of every single music event that's ever happened.