Timbre: Elegantly Simple Local Concert Discovery

As live concerts continue to be the bread and butter of any musician’s business model these days, any and all new technologies that comes along to help people attend more shows are welcomed entries to the space. A New iOS app called Timbre takes a remarkably simple approach by giving users a quick preview of exactly what they’ll be hearing at nearby shows should they attend and then facilitates the ticket buying process – that’s it. It does so without requiring any logins or social integrations and is completely free.

What makes Timbre stand out is the fact that is has such a simple interface and user experience. It provides you with a list of artists performing nearby that display after allowing it to access to your phone’s location or by manually entering a ZIP code. The names of the artists are then displayed in a scrolling “river” of information, showing you concerts organized by date that begin with tonight and moving forward into the future as the user scrolls down.

Once you select an artist, a new page opens up that automatically streams one of their songs along with album artwork and concert details (including buy links). Timbre does this by using Apple’s free preview API to present 30-second clips of any given artist’s top tracks for streaming and utilizes Jambase to pull the concert information.

Click images to enlarge:

Cambridge, MA-based Intrepid Pursuits, developers of Timbre, plan on delivering full tracks and even playlists once they get their licensing deals in order. As of now, the app generates revenue through affiliate links, specifically by redirecting users to the ticket selling websites, but the company says that other methods for revenue generation are in the works, such as partnering directly with publishers and venues, or potentially white-labelling the app.

Timbre faces competition from apps that are already doing a tremendous job of finding the right shows for local music fans such as DeliRadio, ThrillCall and WillCall. While each of these offers their own unique advantages and disadvantages with varying degrees of platform depth, Timbre’s main draw rests in its simplicity and its user experience.

An Android version should be expected soon.

—

Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud