---
layout: post
title: tell me what concerts to see already!
created: 1161531128
permalink: blog/walkah/tell-me-what-concerts-to-see-already/
tags:
- geek
- music
---
<p>i love live music. i've made sort of a commitment to myself to see a lot more of it. but, here's the thing: i want the internet to tell me when and where the concerts i want to see are.</p>
<p>i think i'm not alone... there are a bunch of "getting close" options. first, is <a href="http://www.triv.org.uk/~mavit/upcomingscrobbler/">this mashup</a> of two of my favourite sites/services, <a href="http://upcoming.org/">upcoming</a> and <a href="http://www.last.fm/">last.fm</a>. this is a good start (apart from the "rough" interface), last.fm knows a whole lot about <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/walkah/">my listening habits</a>. however, the results are less than satisfactory since upcoming only contains the concerts that people have posted - and, while it's great for tech conferences, upcoming just hasn't attracted bands, labels, etc.</p>
<p>next, i stumbled upon <a href="http://concerts.ontour.net/">ontour</a>. this is nice - there is actually a dashboard widget that scans your itunes library and matches against upcoming concerts in its impressive (albeit apparently closed / proprietary) list of concert information. my beef here? my music collection isn't actually in my local itunes library. my music collection doesn't fit on my powerbook. truth is, last.fm knows best what i'm listening to these days.</p>
<p>the most complete concert listings still seem to be in local weekly magazines. problem is - at least here in toronto, the two main weeklies: <a href="http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/current/">now</a> and <a href="http://eyeweekly.com/">eye</a> don't actually export or syndicate their concert listings in a usable format (for a last.fm mashup). hell, i can't even get a feed of new concert announcements. consider that a call out.</p>
<p>apparently, last.fm has had some of the same ideas - their latest <a href="http://beta.last.fm/">beta</a> includes <a href="http://beta.last.fm/user/walkah/events/">events</a>! the cool thing here is last.fm is pretty good with recommendations - they might actually be able to tell me something *new* to see. time will tell how complete the listings will end up being. i am hopeful, though, since last.fm does actively recruit <a href="http://www.last.fm/labels/">music labels</a>.</p>
<p>am i missing something? where else are people watching online for local concert listings?</p>
