What we’re doing: Making live music better for fans and bands.

How we’re doing it: By listening.

We’re talking to fans, bands, bookers and everyone we can think of in between. After we talk to as many people as we can find, we find some more. We build theories, then we build things based on those theories and then we test those things with users. Right now, we’re growing a closed community of beta users who will help us test many of these theory and thing babies we’re now developing.

So far, we’re hearing that there is a big, and perplexing, divide for musicians and fans promoting and looking for live music online.

On the one hand, both groups have more tools than ever before for sharing and finding music. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks have connected unbelievable numbers of people, which means bands, theoretically, have access to record numbers of ears and eyes. Of course, we’ve all experienced the downside of having so much so easily accessible (and shareable). There’s so much going on all the time online (and offline, to be sure) that finding things, and getting found, is actually getting more difficult.

This problem isn’t unique to musicians or their fans, but we’re most equipped to tackle it for live music, and we think we can help artists make more (some!) money and fans gain exposure to more awesome live music experiences along the way.

What we’re doing: Saving fans money.

How we’re doing it: By providing fee-less tickets to every Seattle show.

Ending January 31, 2015, our Showgo Direct test program has been running for almost 9 months. We’re taking it down to build on what we learned and develop partnerships with venues. The new version of Showgo Direct will likely have a cooler name, be automated and over fee-less tickets on set amounts of tickets for specific shows.

I recommend using the test while it’s still live, as users save an average of $14.78(!!) per order. That’s almost $15 in fees per order, you guys. There is one venue here in Seattle that sometimes charges as much as a $9 fee on a $20 ticket. So, if you’re buying two, like our user did, you’re paying almost $20 in fees to go to a show. Something is broken.

One problem, among many, we’ve identified is inefficiency. Live music on the local level has taken a big hit in the last seven or eight years in many cities and the industry as a whole as not adapted well to some pretty significant changes. Jacking up fees, it seems, has been the band-aid that many have used to make up for smaller crowds, rising expenses and a glut of entertainment options for people going out on any given night.

The venues, promoters and ticket sellers aren’t the bad guys though (except for Ticket Master, they are still the bad guys), they’re just trying to run businesses (that, by the way, bring amazing music to our cities, neighborhoods and towns). They just need a little help finding ways to be profitable while not pricing fans out of live shows.

We know there’s a solution. Our Showgo Direct experiment has taught us some valuable lessons we can now start using to help ourselves and others be more efficient in an effort to tame these skyrocketing fees.

What we’re doing: Giving bands a voice.

How we’re doing it: By getting to know artists and musicians, listening to the problems they face in promoting their live shows and thinking really hard about the things they tell us. Like really hard.

The thing is (is) that Facebook is great in some ways for promoting live shows, but it sucks in others. And it’s not just Facebook. If an artist takes four or five platforms and rolls all of their strengths together, they might — might — have a workable solution for show promotion. We’ve actually found the same to be true for the bookers and promoters we’ve talked to.

Those that are great at social media can reach large(ish) numbers of fans using Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Soundcloud. But how many of those people are interested in seeing you live? How about new fans? How do you reach those? And, of course, there is the looming question of how many of your fans will event see your Facebook posts in the future as that number seems to only be going down unless you’re willing to pay.

What Showgo is doing is creating a space for live music fans and creators. The people there want to hear about your upcoming show. And your event invite won’t get lost in a sea of cat videos from a high school friend, baby photos from that one new mom or Candy Crush from the Candy Crush zombie army. The only people on Showgo are live music people and the only stuff on Showgo is live music stuff.

What we’re doing: Giving live music fans a place to call they’re own.

How we’re doing it: Similar to the last new thing we’re doing, this new thing is about creating a place that doesn’t yet exist for a group of people who really want it.

Here’s why we’re doing it: Music is super important. And recorded music is becoming a less and less realistic way for musicians to make money. Live music has it’s issues — mainly having to do with keeping up with technology — but it, by definition, will continue to be a revenue stream for artists.

Live music can change, save, impact, create and improve lives. Live music is art at it’s most ancient and stirring. City folk enjoy an endless stream of entertainment options, and we just want to make sure that live music doesn’t get washed away by DJ Nights, Foam Parties or those parties where everyone just listens to the same playlist on their iPhones (whatever they’re called).

Live music is too important, too complex, too intimate to let dwindle even just a little bit. And that’s why we’re making sure that fans can go online and discover cool, amazing, new live music to go see tonight, tomorrow or in a week.