Every other week a new app, website, aggregator or social network comes along claiming to change the game. Be it for food or music or travel, the influence of technology on our lives is becoming enormous – what’s important is making sure your new tech is making things easier, cheaper, or more interesting.
A name in the live music game that popped up a few years back is GiggedIn, a subscription service in which you accrue credits to spend on – you guessed it – gigs (as well as movies, comedy and more). The benefits are laid out on GiggedIn’s website; it’s cheaper than buying tickets individually, there’s a huge range of shows on offer, and you can even slink into a few sold-out shows if you’re lucky.
In order to find out if the hype is real, we chatted to five GiggedIn subscribers and asked about their experiences with the service.
Does GiggedIn sound too good to be true? Believe the hype – we spoke to five subscribers who were happy to share their experiences with the service.
When it came to discovering GiggedIn, these users had happened upon the service in a number of different ways. For Nicola from Sydney (among a great many others, we assume), it was the offer of a cheap pass to a festival that caught her attention:
“I first heard about GiggedIn scrolling through Facebook and it was a sponsored ad saying $15 tickets for last years’ Mountain Sounds festival. Deadset I thought it was a scam, but figured at the end of the day it was $30 for two tickets and a trip up the coast, so I ended up getting them, everything went off without a hitch and my mate and I had quite possibly the most unexpectedly incredible weekend of the year!”
Charlotte and Katja, from Sydney and Melbourne respectively, both heard about the service through mates.
“I heard about Giggedin back in 2016 I think,” said Katja, who makes some tunes of her own as Crayon Music. “It sounded too good to be true, there had to be a catch.”
“I think they had passes to a Tkay Maidza show which my best friend and I were planning to go for and the price of a month subscription was cheaper than the tickets themselves. We thought we would finally bite the bullet and give it a shot and HOLY MOLY was that the best decisions I made in the last three years.”
“The first time I heard of GiggedIn was when a friend of mine had an interaction with it and mentioned it in passing”, Charlotte added. “It instantly sparked my interest as a gig afficianado so after a quick google it didn’t take much to convince me to sign up.”
“It allows you to discover events that you weren’t aware were on, see who of your mates are attending, and the customer service goes above and beyond! I’ve been here for six months and amassed 20 gigs using the site, big love for this company!”
Charlotte touches on something the company is trying to build; a music discovery network of their own. We all know the feeling of seeing a band live, with no expectations, and becoming absolutely blown away. GiggedIn is facilitating that feeling of unearthing your new favourite act by making gig going easier – not to mention cheaper.
This was precisely what happened to Ariel from Sydney at their very first GiggedIn show.
“The first artist I ever saw using Giggedin was Just a Gent, who is now the artist I’ve seen the most times live and love his live shows each time. It’s really cool because I had heard his music before but never seen him live, and the first show I went to was at a small club I probably would never have gone to or heard about.”
A more seasoned user, Katja has begun to use the app as a fall-back when she didn’t want a night in.
“In 2017 my friend and I decided we would go to as many gigs as we possibly could and Giggedin made that so easy, if you had a free Friday night we could just hop on GiggedIn and see what they had happening.”
“We ended up getting to 123 gigs in 2017 and then beating that number again in 2018 with 150 gigs.”
Charlotte was also keen to share her discovery:
“Crooked Colours I went to on a whim. I didn’t know a single one of their tracks, but saw a friend of mine was attending so quickly snapped up a pass! Four months on and they haven’t left any of my playlists!”
Now it would be remiss to chat about GiggedIn and not mention the cost. Yes, this service does set you back a monthly subscription fee, but in speaking to these users it seems everybody is getting their money’s worth and then some.
“I think the cinema ticket each month basically justifies anyone subscribing to GiggedIn”, says Ariel, “it really pays for itself and is a great initiative to get behind to keep driving the club scene that is become increasingly suppressed by the government”.
Emma from Sydney had to agree:
“Giggedin shows that we attend are commonly shows we would have normally paid for full price tickets to attend, so obviously the major plus for us is saving money. In most cases GiggedIn passes give you ‘guest list entry’ so you might not even need to queue for entry.”
Katja went a step further, happily calling the service “the best investment I’ve made”.
As Nicola points out, if you have too busy a month to catch any shows, you can still “save up” passes for that special (maybe more expensive) event you’re super keen to catch:
“The way you can save up passes for bigger ticketed events like festivals is genius, it gives options to people who love live music but might not have the funds when tickets go on sale, kind of like Afterpay but way more fun!”
What’s more, the message we’re receiving from these happy customers is that GiggedIn are the good guys. They’re actively trying to get more people to shows, and looking at Katja’s ripper numbers, it’s easy to see that they’ve been successful. Bigger crowds mean better shows for musos, plus a ton of stress off a venue or promoters’ back when they’re trying to get music lovers in the door.
“Not only does it give support to our local artists”, shared Charlotte, “but also our local venues and agencies who enable the continuing growth of the industry and aid in keeping the passion alive”.
“I 100% think GiggedIn has had a positive impact in the community, especially in regards to live music”, said Emma. “I have been able to attend live gigs that I would never have even known about because it was listed on GiggedIn.”
And even after hitting around 300 gigs through the service, Katja had nothing but praise:
“I have such a huge passion about live music and I love that GiggedIn is embracing that so wholly too. [They’re] getting people who perhaps wouldn’t know too much about the local scene to get out and see all that Australian music has to offer, which is so much.”
“Amazing staff, amazing service”, says Emma. It’s a sentiment Charlotte echoes: “the customer service goes above and beyond!”
Find out more about GiggedIn here.
