AUSTIN, Texas – While most of this week is about SXSW interactive, there’s no denying the importance of indie music at the festival and Songkick, the home for live music on the Web is teaming up with Facebook for a digital, social collaboration.
Songkick, which aggregates artist, concert, festival, venue and ticket information from across 60 countries, sends music fans personalized alerts for upcoming shows in their hometown as well as cheap-ish ticket info. It also lets fans share concerts on social networks, add photos, set lists and reviews after the show.
Songkick already makes good use of a network of social video partners including YouTube, Vevo, and The Hype Machine, but now the firm is making new friends in the social world with a brand new Facebook app.
Taking a cue from the glory days of MySpace, the new Facebook app will allow musicians to make use of Songkick concert listings on their own websites and site-related services. Just in case Facebook falls out of favor like MySpace did, however, Songkick has also partnered up with the likes of Bandcamp, Crowdsurge, FanBridge, Ning, Soundcloud and Topspin.
“It’s become a real hassle for bands to keep their tour information up-to-date across the web,” said Ian Hogarth, CEO and co-founder, “especially because an artist is expected to maintain a presence on multiple sites and social networks. It’s even worse when you consider how much data they need to provide fans for each concert, like venue addresses, set times and ticket links. Songkick and our partners are making it easy for artists, managers, agents and labels, so they can get back to what they do best: creating music and connecting with fans.”
