The amazingly effective Music Venue Trust announced an innovative solution to the biggest issue facing small music venues - paying rent because you don't own the building. Ownership of nine venues across the UK is being piloted through shares to fans and ‘ethical investors’ to buy the freehold of the venue properties. Way to go MVT!
Hearby.com live across UK
Check out hearby.com now live across the UK with 3X more live music shows than any other source - from arenas to smaller, intimate grassroots venues. If you know someone who loves live music, please forward. Many thanks & please reach out with feedback. [North American coverage on the way].
We are building a distribution network...& a movement
Area4 Labs publisher of live music discovery site hearby.com focuses on the unique intersection between artificial intelligence and anthropology to create an entirely new approach to finding live music. We combine the science of big data and the science of humanity to spread the word on live shows – and our partners' brands – through networks of fans, artists, and venues in cities around the world.
Hearby official data partner to UK's Music Venue Trust
We are thrilled to be an official data partner to Music Venue Trust the UK charity representing & lobbying the UK Government for the interests & support for over 1,000 independent grassroots music venues.
Namier Capital leads investment in hearby/Area4 Labs
We’re thrilled to have Namier Capital’s support & advice navigating this next part of our journey with hearby.com, created by us all at Area4 Labs. At a time when live music is collapsing and artists and venues incomes are decimated, we are very fortunate have secured the funds to accelerate our AI tools to better gather live show information & support community engagement in live music when it returns on the other side of this.
Hearby now available in 20 US cities
Hearby, our live music discovery app now covers the largest 20 US cities: Atlanta -- Austin -- Baltimore -- Bay/SF -- Boston -- Chicago -- Dallas -- Detroit -- Houston -- LA -- Minneapolis -- Nashville -- New Orleans -- NYC -- Philadelphia -- Phoenix -- San Diego -- Seattle -- D.C. CHECK OUT THE HEARBY APP, or find us at www.hear.by for all the live music we can find.
Area4 Labs Inc. raises $1M to launch Hearby live music discovery app
With the titans of tech jostling for a slice of the live music space, Hearby, an app. which is “David” to their (metaphorical) “Goliath” launches in 4 major U.S cities today—offering fans of live music a platform that allows simple access to local gigs, talented performers and a route in to new music scenes.
BOSTON, MA (EST)—Area4 Labs Inc. today announced that it has raised more than $1 million U.S Dollars in seed funding to launch Hearby. The app. is available for free download in the App Store and Google Play.
If BandsinTown, Ticketmaster and Google’s new social network launch in NYC—whose name is semantic—offer you music with a corporate sheen, Hearby’s remit is diametrically different. We are the most comprehensive online platform for exploring local live music. This is your passport to the mainstream—but also to the performances you’d never find if new to a city, or just passing through. It’s your passport to what’s authentic.
Hearby provides information on more live music shows in Boston, New York City, San Francisco and the Bay Area, and Austin than any other source, reaching across the diverse music scenes: from pedal guitarists to techno DJs; from hip-hop ciphers to Irish jam sessions; from experimental sound artists to cover bands.
With this funding, Hearby will expand across major cities across the US as well as internationally in the coming months.
“We founded Hearby so we could more easily find live music nearby.” said Gary Halliwell, successful data entrepreneur and CEO, and co-founder of Area4 Labs. “It is both time consuming and frustrating finding what shows are going on. As all analysts know, major players like Google and Facebook are catching on” Halliwell guffaws, stating that “more competition in the market place long overdue” the tech entrepreneur muses. Although Halliwell is quick to qualify this with “Although we all know that the major player tend to fall flat on their faces when it comes to understanding the local live music scene.”
This gap in the media landscape is what drove Halliwell and co-founders Michael Devlin and Ian Condry, to begin creating an alternative to the big players in Hearby, with pre-emptive development work beginning more than 18 months ago. While it’s easy to find headliner artists playing major venues, as the aforementioned failures in the live music ecosystem know there are a kaleidoscope of scenes and genres to chose from at the many smaller, more intimate venues where up-and-coming artists can be found.
Along with the associated website Hear.by, the Hearby app is a new kind of digital guide to show details, artist information and links, as well as recommendations and reviews from a demographic who find sharing their data with technology companies creepy.
“At Hearby, we believe music is about connecting people,” said co-founder Ian Condry, a professor of cultural anthropology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in how cultural movements go from from local to global. “The magic of live music emerges from dynamic, sometimes unexpected, social experiences. Other businesses focus primarily on selling you a ticket; our mission is to help you find your musical adventures. It’s the most interesting kind of data problem because it’s about social matching.” Condry added.
"Musicians are at the forefront of rapid and dramatic changes, as earnings from recordings have become less important than live performances which is now the source of the vast majority of musician’s livelihoods", commented Panos Panay, senior vice president for global strategy and innovation at the Berklee College of Music, and founding managing director of the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurships who is an advisor to Hearby. "We live an age of music abundance. It’s precisely the changes wrought by the digital present that make going to see live music valuable to a variety stakeholders in new ways." He added.
The implications are enormous said co-founder Michael Devlin, ex-head of digital strategy at Johnson & Johnson, who has spent his career building data-driven strategies and decision-making systems in global organizations. “We see the greater distribution and dissemination of this information in today’s array of digital channels as our business,” said Devlin. “We’ve watched this industry’s valuation climb in to billions of dollars since we began development. The big players’ reaction already hints that they know we’re onto something”.
The Hearby app and the website offer a revolutionary live music exploration platform that removes the friction in finding shows in the community. If you’re planning a fun night out exploring music options with friends in your neighborhood, or a visitor eager to a new city, Hearby offers the most live music experiences to explore. “Much more” Halliwell adds, “Than our competitors”.
Area4 Labs Inc. launches at SXSW 2019
Mobile Protest Disco at Work @ Women's March
Mobile Protest Disco @ Cambridge/Boston Women's March
Disco Dogs [aka Mobile Protest Disco] at the Illuminus Festival Nov 4/5
Join us at Boston's Illuminus Festival in Downtown Crossing Nov 4/5.
Mobile Protest Disco as DACA Rally Boston
Mobile Protest Disco at Sanctuary Somerville
Mobile Protest Disco at Muslim Ban Protest in Copley Square
Mobile Protest Disco at Boston Woman's March
How to Create Your Own Mobile Protest Disco
Top: MPD is constructed from simple plumbing supplies & transported on a trolley.
Middle: Lightweight Dirty generator runs for 8 hours on a single tank. Upgraded wheels.
Bottom: Speakers attached, mixer added & ready to roll.
MatesRadio up and running
Experimenting with music sharing among friends. www.matesradio.com is now up and running 24/7. Check out the link & let me know if you've got playlist you want to share on MatesRadio.
Middlesex Lounge, Cambridge, March 16th
I will be dj-ing at the Middlesex on March 16th. Free admission. 8pm till midnight with Shing02, Spin Master A1, NBS (Natural Born Spitters), The A-Beez, and DJ sets by Toshiya the Tribal (from Japan) and DJ iancondry
Timebanking UK Conference Stirling, Scotland
Spent an eye-opening two days with the amazing people who organize the UK's timebanks. Timebanks have really taken off in the UK & help people trade time & skills for ones they don't have. For instance, a retired lawyer might give an hour to help someone in need of legal advice. In return she gets a credit in the Timebank for an hour of someone else's skill. Her need might decorating or music lessons. The key is everyone's time is valued the same. Give an hour -- get an hour.
Everyone has skills. You can do something simple like the shopping for someone - right? That's enough. The real effectiveness of this model is in reducing isolation & improving wellbeing. Timebanks are increasingly being adopted into healthcare delivery & local government services. This is not the one-sided giving model of charity. It's about people trading their time and skills for those of others in the community.
This idea of social currencies beyond money is really interesting as it extends to the idea of cryptocurrencies. Kate McDonald of Hull & East Riding Timebank filled me in on Hull County Council's plan to launch HullCoin, a local currency to help boost the city economy & help manage the worst impacts of welfare reform. Interesting stuff.