This year at The Great Escape we had the chance to hear Ian Hogarth talk not only about Songkick, the company that he set up with two friends, Peter and Michelle, but also about his broader plans for his business. Rightly so Ian was named UK Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year 2010.
Songkick aims to ensuring that you, the music lover, is never left in the dark when a band, musician, or concert comes to your city. This is pretty innovative stuff and the more Ian spoke during the PRS (Will Page) & Songkick talk before a panel discussion, the more your saw the passion and the need for such a website. Ian won £5,000 which he aims to spend developing Songkick in China.
Their site aims to give music lovers more than just a simple listing of events it aims, or its goal, is for Songkick to become the main place people come to talk about their past concerts, singers they loved and love, and new music. The talk has some interesting facts which struck me as a little worrying. The main thing I picked up on was that though some shows say they are sold out around 35% of shows (40% this year) remained unsold. Songkick, Ian says, will let you know when a band or concert is coming to your areas and give you a list of the ticket vendors giving you the best price. It has to be made clear here that Songkick does not sell tickets for events.
Songkick has already started to get people pretty excited with 1.3 million people using the site and some great stories of past shows like a 1982 Ramones show. This is a great initiative and is one that is clearly going to make it easy for people to know more about live music in their areas as well as come to a place dedicated for them to share their experiences.
One the financial side Songkick make their money from getting a commission from the sale of a ticket as Songkick would have directed a sale to the ticket seller that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
