owngig.com

Overall for a site that launched just over six months ago, we’ve done pretty well in the press up till now. We’ve been on Channel 4, Radio 4 and The World Service. Plus we’ve also featured in The Sunday Times and popular comedy site, Chortle. Well now we can add The Telegraph to the list, after we got the following piece online – looking at us as part of a wider trend piece looking at band reunions – including The Smiths whose peerless Derek Jarman directed How Soon is Now video sits above this piece.

Thanks to Bernadette McNulty for the publicity.

Another first of 2008. Bibendum arrives in Japan

At this time of year one thing that overtakes the world of entertainment is list mania. It seems you can’t click on a link anywhere without falling over someone’s best of the year, in everything from the top ten oddball news stories of 2008 to the top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008 (the inspiration for the above pic – no. 21). In fact if you’re list mad then this page that aggregates all the lists online maybe of use.

With all this list compiling we’re pleased to see that Owngig.com hasn’t been overlooked and has made it into Music Ally’s 200 digital music startups from 2008, alongside such luminaries as Pitchfork.tv and Spotify. It’ll be interesting to see where the next year takes Owngig – we’re already having a lot of interesting conversations, which should make 2009 a very good year for the site. Till then, Owngig.com would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and if you’ve never heard it, do yourself a favour and buy this. Best. Christmas. Album. Ever.

There was an interesting piece on the Radio 4 Today Programme on Monday about the credit crunch causing bands to scale back tours – as they couldn’t predict or guarantee that fans would turn up in the same numbers. This seems like something that Owngig is well suited to provide. We gather information on who’s interested in seeing a band, and where they are – which solves the problems of demand for the gig owner.

It would certainly have got Lily Allen out of a pickle, after it was revealed recently that the star had bought tickets for her own concert after fearing that it wouldn’t sell out.

After the success of our Blow Monkeys gig and a week filled with lots of great press coverage, we’re looking forward to planning the next gig. While we can’t say who it is yet, it’s coming up closer than you’d think

One thing we’ve seen on the web recently was that one of our favourite comedians, Chris Morris is using the crowdsourcing to fund his new project, Four Lions. After Channel 4 and BBC1 ran scared of the new comedy project, Four Lions which darkly satirists the world of Islamist miltancy, Chris turned to the internet and in association with Warp Films, asked punters to pay £25 each to fund the project. In return they got the chance to appear in the show. So, similar to Owngig.com, the public get the chance to get a personalised experience for funding the project.

In other site news…

We’re pleased to see that bids for Tom Waits is edging close to 100. Not least ‘cos we quite like Tom Waits. We’d love to get him over here, so keep bidding. Also if you have any ideas for suitably Tom Waits-esque places he could perform a gig, drop us a line…