Quite a diverse crowd on here, well, age wise anyway.
Where do you find out about gig/festivals/etc and on what medium? Social media? Youtube? Googling it yourself? Newsletters you’ve signed up for? The local rag (online, presumably no one buys a paper anymore)?
Looking to get a range of answers whether you’re a death metal fan looking to know if a relatively niche band you follow is coming to the UK, or an Ed Sheeran/other mainstream-as-it-gets fan looking to know when his arena tours are. Or if you’re a dance music fan, where do you find out about club shows and the like.
Full disclosure – I work in the music industry but this isn’t research, I just go to so many events with work I never even considered where people look these days. Last time I paid to go to an event MySpace was still the only widely used social media platform, Youtube hadn’t really taken off, and for dance music Don’t Stay In (online) and Mixmag/DJ Mag in print were all still a thing.
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Follow the artists on social media. Alongside Ticketmaster and the promoters as well. Plus the local radio stations as well.
Facebook. Punk gigs. I have bands, venues and promoters I follow.
A bit of word of mouth as well.
I get most of the information for gigs and events from emails, I am signed up to alerts from some of the top ticketing sites, and also to local venues that will advertise up and coming artists. I do also have some thoughts sometimes when I see or hear a particular band or comedian I enjoy, to just check their website or social media for information as to if they are touring anywhere near me.
Google searches, venue website, social media ads, news reporting.
I usually check venue websites first and foremost as I tend to stick to the same ones. Sometimes social media. Generally though, just from scrolling see tickets and the likes.
…and then decide it’s absolutely fine to spend £80 on another pair of tickets, regret a little once the high wears off. Attend said concert, have concert high. Repeat some time later.
Edit: Spotify is pretty good for gig alerts too, if you’re following bands you like. You’ll usually get an email for upcoming gigs and I regularly get an email about local events to me too.
Songkick
GigAlert. You can set alerts on bands you like so you instantly know when new tour dates are released. It’s for music, festivals, comedy, theatre etc.
Follow my local venues on Facebook
Resident Advisor, LinkedIn (yes, weird, I know.) and generally just keeping up to date with musicians I like via social media.
The Dice app is also good.
Follow the artists on twitter
http://www.headfirstbristol.co.uk
Obviously it’s a local one though.
BandsInTown is quite good, even for niche bands!
It can scan your music library or bands you follow on social media, and then updates in the app if they’re touring. It also shows bands that may be similar interests to your current ones which is good !
I usually check every few months on ticketmaster and scroll through upcoming shows
Maybe I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but Facebook is still my main source of gig info. I have liked all of the Facebook pages of any bands I like and any local venues or promoters, so I always have a steady feed of gigs displayed to me everyday. If only I could afford to go to all the gigs I want to go to…
Artist mailing lists, and stuff like SongKick email you with upcoming stuff you’ve told them you’re interested in.