Are you one of those people who seems to always miss the show? I’m talking about those times when your friend asks you what you thought of that Pearl Jam concert and you are like ,”There was a Pearl Jam concert, when?”
Unfortunately I happen to be one of these people. The aforementioned Pearl Jam example actually happened to me back in 1994, man I was not happy. Living in New Zealand limits one’s opportunities to see big name bands locally. Those days are over for me now with the help of Gruvr.
Gruvr is a Google Maps mash-up that keeps you informed as to when and where there are bands playing locally in your area. All you need to do is visit the site and gruvr takes care of the rest. Once you arrive your IP address is picked up and a Google map will inform you of the relevant concerts or ‘gigs’ that are on the forecast for your local region.
Signing up for the free service is as simple as providing your email address….that’s it 
My top feature on the site has to be a function that shows the real tour locations and dates of any chosen group or band using the simple Google maps interface. There is nothing quite like actually visualizing the touring schedule of your favorite band on a global map. It almost makes you feel sorry for those poor (well they aren’t all poor) musicians. Man they cover some miles on tour!
Geo RSS feeds are on offer to keep you updated on the fly. There are two feeds on offer, one is called ‘my band radar’ and the other is ‘local concerts in your area’. The ‘my band radar’ feed will provide you with updated information on shows for specific bands that you have indicated as being your favorites. The ‘local concerts in your area feed’ is designed to inform you of any concerts that pop up on the calendar in your geographic region.
Many successful bands have now had longstanding relationships with places like MySpace and Bebo. Most bands have created quality profiles and use these as key online promotional tools. Gruvr quite cleverly leverages the existing content for bands by using the concert schedule information on individual band profiles.
Any gruvr member can add a band that they would like to track by simply providing the bands name in a search field. In some situations gruvr will call for the name used in the bands myspace profile URL. I found that both functions were simple and worked well.
In true web 2.0 style, gruvr will offer you a snippet of code, allowing you to publish the map that is tracking your favourite band on your own site, profile or blog.
It never ceases to amaze me that the most pleasing web 2.0 mashups are often the most simple of ideas. When a simple idea intersects customer demand you have the magic ingredient for a potentially excellent start-up. If gruvr have a the level of demand that I am guessing they might get, they may really be onto something here.
