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concerts posts

Filed under: Internet

Find live music near you with Gruvr

Gruvr
We've been using Pollstar to find local concerts for years. But sometimes we get the hankering for something a bit more web 2.0. Enter Gruvr. Not only does the site have web 2.0 cred with its lack of the letter "e," but it includes a pretty nifty Google Maps mashup and the company recently launched a widget you can embed on your own site.

But what does Gruvr do, and is it useful?

Enter your city, zip code, or other geographic info and Gruvr will pull up a list of concerts near you in chronological order, starting today. You can limit your search to shows within 5 miles, 10 miles, or some other interval. Gruvr also plots the location of each concert on a Google Map.

Here's where it begins to get a bit annoying. Gruvr will then show information from one location to another rapidly. Too rapidly. It's kind of hard on the eyes. You can also type in a band name and track their tour dates across the country. But the visual experience is a bit jarring. We'll probably stick with Pollstar for now.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Windows, Macintosh, Apple, Freeware

iConcertCal - Let iTunes fill your social calendar

If you're one of those people who always finds out about a concert the morning after, then iConcertCal is for you.

iConcertCal is an iTunes plug-in designed to let you know about upcoming concerts in your area and upcoming album releases by creating a calender based the music you have in Tunes. If you like a band but not enough to buy their CD you can also add additional artists who aren't in your iTunes library and have iConcertCal search for those as well.

Both the Windows and Mac version of iConcertCal are available to download for free..so you'll still have money later to buy that tour shirt.

[via EmilyChang]

Filed under: Audio, News, Web services, Apple

Apple and Ticketmaster team up to save you 99 cents

TicketmasterTicketmaster and Apple are planning a new promotion that allows you to download a free song from iTunes for every concert ticket you buy from Ticketmaster's web site. And in some situations, purchasing a complete album on iTunes will give you a chance to buy concert tickets before Ticketmaster sells them to the rest of the world.

Of course, with Ticketmaster fees being as high as they are, this doesn't really strike me as much of a bargain. Sure, you can save the 99 cents it would cost to download a track of your choice. But If I have to pay a $6.45 "convenience charge" on a $38 ticket, a free song isn't going to make me like Ticketmaster any better. I'll probably just stick to picking up my concert tickets at the box office window whenever I can. I can buy a full album with the money I'd save on two tickets.

Filed under: Audio, Developer, Fun, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Apple

Find concerts with iTunes with iConcertCal

search concent venues with itunes
iConcertCal in add-on for iTunes--both Mac and PC--that monitors what kind of music is played in a user's music library, then generates a calendar of upcoming events in your city that would be of interest to you. The iConcertCal scours the web searching for bands that match up to your library, syncs it up, and updates the calendar once a week. Installation is easy; the seven steps outlined on the site take a few minutes to complete. Its developers built it for one specific reason: They were sick and tired of missing concerts for their favorite bands in their area. With the tool being relatively new, the team has sent up a suggestion form for you to fill out if you have any comments.

[via webware]

Filed under: Audio, Web services, Social Software

New Last.fm features: Flash player, concerts, free MP3s, and more

Recently social music site Last.fm unveiled an impressive array of new features, the first since July. Here's a breakdown:

Last.fm Flash playerFlash player
Previously listening to Last.fm radio required downloading and installing a desktop app, which was less than optimal. While the desktop player remains, Last.fm now also has a version in Flash that plays inside your browser. It's compact and works pretty much as advertised, though I experienced a few minor connection issues. The buttons from left to right are Recommend this track to your friends, Tag this track, Express your love for this track, and Don't ever play me this track again. The player's only failing, in my opinion, is the absence of a Pause button.

Last.fm EventsEvents system
Last.fm now has a built-in event calendar that shows upcoming concerts near you. It shows gigs for the bands you listen to as well as (optionally) your friends' favorite acts and recommended artists. Users can add events that the system doesn't already know about, but I'm not sure if it also draws data from a more authoritative source, e.g. Pollstar or Ticketmaster.

Free MP3s
The site now offers some free MP3 downloads. The download links appear both on your dashboard (based on Last.fm's recommendations) as well as artist pages. You can preview the each track before downloading.

Last.fm Taste-o-meterTaste-o-meter
Lastly, the Taste-o-meter, which appears on other users' profiles, tells you how closely your musical tastes are aligned with theirs, and what artists you have in common.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with these new features, in particular the Flash player and the event calendar. I had almost given up on Last.fm in favor of Pandora (OpenPandora in particular). I've always been a fan of Last.fm's social features, and I'm glad to see them expand.

[Via Read/WriteWeb]

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