Songkick

• Pros

  Makes it a breeze to find artist tour dates. Taps iTunes, Last.fm, and other sources to help you find tour dates. Free.

• Cons Requires a Facebook account to sign in. Unattractive design that doesn't mirror the beautiful look of the mobile app.
• Bottom Line

  Songkick makes it easy for music fans to keep an eye on their favorite artists' tour dates?and purchase show tickets?by alerting them to when musicians and comedians are in town.

By Jeffrey L. Wilson

Hardcore music fans have their beloved bands' tour schedules seemingly imprinted on their souls, but those of us with more casual devotions may have trouble keeping tabs on our favorite artists' performance dates. Enter Songkick, a free Web service (also available as an Android?and iOS app) that notifies you when an artist plans to come to your town. Concertgoers, consider Songkick a must-bookmark site.

How Songkick Works
You obtain concert information by logging in with your Facebook credentials (unfortunately, this is the only way to sign up), keying an artist's name into the search box, clicking the search icon, selecting the artist's database entry, and then clicking "Track." You'll know that an artist is on tour if you see a red "On Tour" sash adorning the listing. If an artist isn't on tour, Songkick simply displays "No Upcoming Events."

Songkick also lets you discover upcoming concerts by tapping your personal tastes that are recorded in other sites and services. A column on the home page's right side lets you import artist information from your Facebook, iTunes, Last.fm, Pandora, or Spotify?accounts to build? a list of performers without using Songkick's search feature?and it works surprisingly well. Songkick recognized nearly every artist?even the relatively unknown Death Grips. Songkick Concerts didn't recognize a Heems track, but overall I was impressed that the app has its ear tuned to both popular and underground acts.

The Songkick Experience
Songkick's Web site isn't as attractive as its Android app (I dare say that it's downright ugly), but it's simple to use despite lacking the slick panel-driven mobile interface. "Artists" displays a list of performer thumbnail image showing artists you manually added and those which Songkick automatically generated based on your music collection. Songkick displays the tour dates, tour venues, and locations when you click an artist link. You can also let others know if you're attending (by clicking "I'm going"/"I might go"), view similar artists, purchase tickets (from the likes of LiveNation, Stubhub!, and others sellers), and view other Songkick Concert users who plan to attend the same show (unfortunately, there's no way to interact with them).

"Calendar" displays the shows you may attend and artist tour dates. It also lets you add a date to Google Calendar if you prefer to house tour information there?a nice touch. "Locations" lets you add cities that you're willing to visit to attend shows. For example, I inputted Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, so Songkick Concerts only displayed tour dates from artists who are planning to appear in those cities. Songkick Concerts makes finding concerts very simple, and you don't have to worry about missing a show again.

Party On, Wayne
Whether you're a concert frequenter or simply want to see a live music show once in a while, Songkick is a Web site to visit. Songkick not only lets you view when your favorite performers are coming to town, but lets you purchase tickets, too. The site and mobile app quickly became my go-to app whenever the idea of attending a live show popped into in my head. Music fans: check out this site.

By Jeffrey L. Wilson

Jeffrey L. Wilson's love of all things shiny/digital has lead to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for 2D-X, E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. He now brings that passion to...

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