THE INTERNET (Hypebot) — I recently came across DIYgigs.com and thought it was a great idea. Basically it's a free site that allows people to list venues with contact information, update the posted info and rate the venues from the band's perspective. Something I've been thinking about but these guys actually created it. Then I realized that the listings were kind of thin and, after searching for reviews of the site itself, discovered that it had launched in 2009.
Given that the site has a nice look and is easy to use and that I can't find anything else I can say that about, I'm wondering if this is a project that folks should get behind and help move to another level.
DIYgigs.com was launched in 2009 by the lads at The New Rockstar Philosophy. Here's the basic concept as presented in the text below the YouTube intro from December '09:
"The whole idea is for bands and venues to share their contacts so everyone can benefit."
•Bands can book a tour easier if they know the right contacts and the best places to play.
•Venues can monitor the feedback other artists and people have of the venue. They can thus improve based on the feedback.
•It doesn't cost anything to have access to.
Since I like the concept and wondered what happened, I wrote the guys at The New Rockstar Philosophy and heard back from Voyner. He basically told me that they had launched the site hoping it would take off on its own. Since it hasn't and since they've been pressed for money and time, given their other projects, they haven't been able to give it the additional attention it needs. But they'd still like to see the service move forward.
Of course, the basic problem is their lack of time to put into DIYgigs.com since it already exists in a quite usable form. Most such sites don't suddenly take off on their own. They require a lot of support and attention. It's easy to think otherwise, given the success stories of services that just exploded right away, but you've got to put in the time to make crowdsourced projects work. As Sarah Lacy recently pointed out, your model in such endeavors should be Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, not Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.
That said, I'm curious to know if Hypebot readers think such a service is needed. Are bands doing ok with the resources they have? Is the emergence of Bandsurfing about to make the question moot? Are there other services doing a decent job that are building exactly what bands need to find suitable venues?
Please share your thoughts as to whether or not DIYgigs.com is what the indie industry needs.
