n0tice helps champion live music with #gdngigs

The Guardian Music team is using n0tice’s crowdmapping capabilities to great effect to help its readers share live gig reports and pictures from across the country.

Launching the project at the weekend, Adam Boult explained that it’s “an attempt to capture unforgettable moments at gigs for people to share and enjoy.”

“Our hope is that the Guardian’s live music map will help people discover local venues and artists and go out and see them more. And those who know about great local music will have a better platform for sharing their passion.”

The initiative to champion gigs comes at an interesting point in time for live venues – rules governing the licensing of venues have been significantly relaxed and, as The Observer reported on Sunday, the music industry has never been so reliant on revenue from live performance.

Tom Lamont writes: “If bands in 2012 make any money for themselves and for their labels they are likely to do so from the dogged touring of rooms big and small.”

Here’s how you can join in
Report on your favourite venue and encourage others to go there more often. Tell everyone in the area about an up and coming local band worth checking out.

If you’re in a band, you could use it to share behind-the-scenes gig pictures, and ask your fans to post about your shows. The Vaccines, Band of Horses, Dry the River, Tegan and Sara, and Aluna George are among those who have already been using the #gdngig hashtag – see their posts here.

While not every post will find its way to the map, the full stream of activity can be found on the #gdngig noticeboard here, including forthcoming events near you.

Bands and artists can list their gigs on the noticeboard, and venues can post events they are hosting.
As with all our n0tice developments, developers can reuse the Guardian Live Gig Map code or tap into the n0tice APIs directly. All that is documented here on n0tice.org.