North East Entrepreneurs Boost the Live Music industry with the Launch of GIGCO App
A team of North East entrepreneurs are preparing to boost the live music scene with a comprehensive “What’s On” guide. GIGCO App is an innovative new app designed to create direct connections between venues, artists and fans — thanks to help from the North Tyneside Business Factory.
Founded by Ben Kindlan (38) and Frank De Vrijer (29) the app has been designed specifically to solve the problem of promoting relationships between artists, fans and venues — an issue founder Ben, from Whitley Bay, experienced repeatedly while running his own live music venues in South East Asia.
Ben Kindlan, co-founder of GIGCO comments: “We are true music lovers at heart. Our initial product on the GIGCO App is our comprehensive “What’s On” guide. All live music gigs and DJ shows, for the first time, will be in one place. Fans, venues and artists are being let down by social media platforms and ticketing sites. Venues and artists can build a following of thousands only to find the platform’s algorithms only inform a small number of these followers about events. And ticketing sites only promote the events they profit from selling. Our platform features all gigs in any city. You can share your discoveries with friends. You can buy tickets from the host’s ticket site. The live music landscape has been hit incredibly hard by Covid restrictions and the rise in energy bills and cost of living crisis is expected to impact venues hard. We want to do what we can to reignite this sector by removing some of the difficulties in discovering what is happening in your neighbourhood.”
The business has attracted the backing of a series of North East heavyweights in the tech start-up world such as Malcolm Cowley, founder of Performance Horizon, and Pete Cheyne, founder of BottlePay.
“Good technology is built to address a specific problem,” comments founder Frank De Vrijer. “and for us, while running the Earth Bar, we discovered a strange phenomenon. We were struggling to find a constant supply of musicians for our venues and Ben was struggling to find a steady stream of gigs as a musician. This supply and demand problem seemed to be an issue on whichever side of the fence you were on. That could not be the case.
“Our plan with GIGCO was to create one central platform that connects venues more directly with artists so they can see availability and locations and book gigs in advance. The platform not only works greatly in favour of the artists in terms of boosting their gig pipeline but it can also cut across regional and national borders to help more up-and-coming artists broaden their appeal.”
Ben and Frank originally met while managing hospitality venues in South East Asia, with the team returning to their North East roots to develop the project thanks to the vibrant technology start-up scene in the region.
The GIGCO App is set for launch in November 2022 with plans to initially launch in the North East, followed by a series of strategic regional launches throughout the UK. Pre-registration for venues or artists is now available.
Open to all venues, musicians and fans alike, GIGCO will allow artists across the music industry to take bookings, sell merchandise and interact more directly with an audience through the app. At the same time, GIGCO will support venues to source and locate artists to fill their live event calendar and meet the needs of customers eager to witness more live music in local venues.
Ben and Frank received help and guidance from the North Tyneside Business factory to assist in their start-up journey. Delivered by TEDCO Business Support in the Borough, the Business Factory and its team of experienced advisors bring one-to-one support in the form of business planning and financial guidance to guide start-ups to a successful launch. The Business Factory is the enterprise support programme from North Tyneside Council and is funded by the ERDF.
Lee Casey, Business Advisor at The Business Factory / TEDCO commented, “Ben and Frank aim to make GIGCO the go-to platform in the music industry for connecting artists to venues and really help in the recovery of the live music scene. They have the background, knowledge and skills to really provide a solution to a problem that they themselves have extensive experience of, having run the types of venues that would have benefitted from the tech. They have such passion and it’s been wonderful to work with them and connect the team to the type of support through the Business factory that will really help GIGCO get off to the best start. I wish them the very best of luck.”
Come check us out download the app NOW!
Apple:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/gigco-live-music-guide/id1594157611
Google:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gigco.gigcoapp
