Zigire (on my blogroll) is a guy who i’ve come to know through this blog and his comments..
As a result, i can’t help myself but keep an eye on his blog 
Anyway, giglovers has been launched for a couple of weeks now and i said to myself it deserves to be advertised.. It reminds me of my own BeerChief – months in development and a seemingly never ending road to launch, but worth every minute at the end of it all.
Zigire mentions giglovers wayyy back in December ’06 – over 6 months ago. The domain was registered in April ’06 so Zigire was obviously toying with a gig site back then – over a year ago.
From a noObs point of view, you get an idea, buy a domain, spend a few weeks building the site and launch it – easy. Not that easy in reality.. logo’s, design, languages, promotion etc.. can eat up time and wreck your head. Do those colours work together? Is my domain too long? Do i use AJAX there or stick with php?
Zigire has got it spot on with giglovers imo.. simple, clear, no-nonsense layout and design. Very glossy and web 2.0 and reminds me of digg or mashable‘s new social network.
Not only am i a fan of the layout/design/thinking etc.. i’m also a fan of the niche he has picked.. music is big business and we’ve moved from vinyl’s and cd’s to mp3′s and the internet. Lets face it, we all have hundreds if not thousands of mp3′s we’ve downloaded (legally or illegally!).
I previously blogged about the power of youtube and how i feel it *could* transform the music industry if it wanted to by using itself as a record label and allowing users to download artists music for free, but downloading for each track starts after 30 seconds of video ads – and thus youtube make their money that way, we as the consumer are happy because we get free music and the artist is happy as they get a cut of ad revenue plus maximum exposure as their music is free. Just a thought.
Anyway, giglovers is one of those sites you can’t help but bookmark if you’re into music and concerts/events. If you’re going away to say paris for a weekend, you could check out giglovers and see who’s playing – it could be your favourite artist. And that’s exactly what i did when i stumbled upon Justin Timberlake in London – i’m sure there’s other people who do that.
Add in the whole social element of it.. i.e adding a widget into your bebo or something and giglovers is pretty much guaranteed some sort of success. All it needs is some advertising and more emphasis on locations and stadiums/arena’s..
I’ll be keeping an eye on it; if i was a venture capitalist, i’d be backing it 
