History of ShowsintheUS.com

Ever since I began listening to music and attend live performances / shows, I was never able to find ONE place where I could find ALL the information I was looking for: Where are the shows, who was in town, what's going on in this venue/club, etc… Especially small venues, small shows, in small towns! How many times have I had customers inform me of shows and I had no idea that the band was in town at all!

Even after I opened my own record store, Headline Records in Los Angeles in 1995, it was hard to find out what events were going on. Word of mouth, flyers, do-it-yourself magazines or the local entertainment papers were the only way to promote the smaller shows, venues or local bands, for all types of music, events or concerts. I started to become aware this was true not only for Los Angeles, but world-wide. Of course, entities like Ticketmaster.com or Livenation.com provide listings of big events that they are associated with in each city, but many of the smaller productions, such as jazz bars, coffee houses and small theaters are limited in their budgets and often rely on a single local paper, or their own specific online avenues. Myspace.com, became huge not solely because of the individual profile interaction, but because big or small bands, companies, and individuals could promote and communicate through that network. However, it's difficult to find concerts, and specific events in your town, because the Myspace network is not specifically set up for that purpose and the information is not centralized to one network.

I consider myself a happy and successful small business owner and I predominantly interact with those involved with small "events or concerts" and "smaller bands", since the core business for my record store is a niche market, such as the punk and alternative genres. This has often led me to ask this question… How can one effectively promote a small event or let people know about a show? There must be a better way (and cheaper) for small venues or bands to promote themselves. How can you let local consumers know about your show, but at the same time have the information available to a wider net?

In 2005, a band came to my store and asked me where they could play in New York. So I checked the web, trying to find out about places to play in NYC. Nothing came up from the search, so out of frustration, I typed “ShowsinNEWYORK.com” as a search, and found that domain name was not taken. I was a little surprised at first, so then I checked “ShowsinLOSANGELES.com” and found the same thing. Right away, I thought it would be a great idea to have a website, a portal, where anyone could go to and find listings of shows anywhere in the country, searching by name, venue, genre, date,  however they choose.

That same night, I stayed very late in front of my computer, checking ‘Shows in’ domains relative to every major city, and  found that none of them were registered.

The next day, I started to purchase all the domain names, starting with all 50 states (ShowsinCALIFORNIA.com etc.), and the next day all the major cities (ShowsinLOSANGELES.com etc.) all over the United States. Later on, I had a full network, with ALL the major cities, ALL the countries all over the world. A few days later, I began to think about HOW to put together a website.

At this point, I felt I had a really good idea and I decided to go further in my project, creating a business map for a website company. I designed the main ideas, wrote down the features, descriptions, and hired a company to start a prototype website.

Unfortunately since 2008, Headline Records who is the main "financial provider" for ShowsintheUS.com start to feel the recession. To this day, finding a partner(s) or investor(s) is a challenge. As an entrepreneur, but also a business person oriented (with Headline Records), I know & understand the financial, stats, traffic etc .. investor's aspect. I understand also, any project (no matter what field you are) has risks. But you can limit it by analyzing the project from A to Z:  idea, potential, financially possible, can be global or local idea, implication into the day by day life .. etc SEE THE BIG PICTURE. Just take a few moment, and check LocalShows.com or ShowsintheUS.com, and let me know what you think.


Thanks - Jean Luc Gaudry