iLike is launching a new iPhone application today that takes advantage of the iPhone 3.0 update’s new features in some of the best ways that we’ve seen yet. Dubbed “Local Concerts”, the application lets you follow any artist you’d like and receive alerts whenever they announce that they’re coming to a local venue. For anyone who has ever tried to keep tabs on their local music scene, this is going to be a must-have. You can grab the free app here.
Using the app is pretty straightforward: it allows you to view all venues in your area, with concert listings for events that are going on in the near future or further down the line. But it also includes a number of nifty features that the iPhone didn’t previously support. One of these is automated personalization — the application can look at your iPhone or iPod Touch’s library, and determine which artists you should probably be following (though you’re free to adjust the list on your own). Once you’ve found a concert you’d like to attend, the app includes links to sites where you can purchase tickets. Whenever you’ve got an alert, you’ll see a message pop up on your iPhone (much like an SMS message would) regardless of if you have the application open.
Now, iLike has previously offered a more basic application on the iPhone but it was much more basic — if you forgot to check the application manually, you wouldn’t know that your band was coming to town or their tickets were about to go on sale. And the old app didn’t have the automatic artist detection, either.
The one thing I wish the app did have was an option to not only determine which artists you’d like to follow based on their appearance in your music library, but also to take into account the number of times you actually listen to those artists. Obviously this would make things a bit more complicated, but there are plenty of artists I have on my iPhone simply because I feel obligated to fill the device’s storage space to the brim. In any case, iLike’s current suggestion system will be plenty helpful for most people. You can see it in action in the video embed below.
Alongside today’s launch, iLike is also releasing some of the initial stats for its custom iPhone app platform, which it launched in May. Over 250 artists have now used the platform to build their own applications, including Reba McEntire, Ingrid Michaelson, and Rusted Root. The applications allow artists to build rich iPhone apps — including music, video, concert listings, and Twitter feeds — with a minimum of effort It also taps into iLike’s syndication platform, which means content can be delivered to iLike’s 50 million fans easily.
iLike’s Local Concert Demo
iLike’s Artist Platform Demo
I’ve used the service via the website and have the older version of the app. The push is obviously a great addition, but having the favorite artists synced from the computer is also very cool.
I’m usually not one to like these services — I couldn’t stand Eventful, I told it I wanted music updates and got notifications about strip clubs — but iLike really seems to have some intuitive stuff going on behind the scenes. It picked up on most of my favorite artists right off the bat.
This app is cool to have but not too necessary…
Jason, that’s an awesome idea! I love the idea of an app telling me when bands are coming based on listening habits. Getting friend data would be cool too — then I can surprise people with tickets.
Here’s an interesting read, don’t miss it!! – http://bit.ly/n6HuE
This is really cool application. Amazing Idea
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I really like http://www.tourfilter.com You add the bands you like, and it scours the web to let you know when they will be playing in your town.
I am sure they will have many downloading this useful app. Its free so I wont be featuring it on http://www.appgiveaway.com
as we only promote paid apps.
Still waiting for my App to be okeyed by Apple 1 month and 1 week later still heard nothing back from them!
I’m not a big fan of music bands, but those who are will find it perfect to use features of this app.
What other kinds of band are there?
Rubber
so now along with 10,000 useless ‘count down timer’ apps/widgets, we’ll also have 10,000 individual band apps? that only 10 people will care about on average each? (counting the band members themselves)
how is it that my app doesn’t show “my artists” tap on top.
only the first two…
same. what’s the deal?
Very annoying. Obviously being blocked in Ireland. Get the older version of the app.
Same here- no My Artists tab and no push notifications for me
How do you go about downloading older versions of iPhone apps? I’m not sure that’s even possible (without a jailbroken iPhone)
Who needs this, there is already an App called Eventful!!!
Brilliant – anything that helps make the connection easier for fans and artists is what I look for….thank you Jason for the heads up!
Brilliant – anything that helps make the connection easier for fans and artists is what I look for….thank you Jason for the heads up!