podbop

Podbop launched two weeks ago, and recently won an award for top web 2.0 mashup - and for music followers it may be the most interesting mashup we??ve seen yet. Podbop (developed by two 22 year old students) combines a (US) database of concert events and with band sites that include downloadable music.

The result is that you can search for any city in the U.S. and get results (including RSS for future events) that include all upcoming live music and links to download music supplied by the band. If the band has no music available, Podbop will show a blogdigger search for that artist along with the concert data. For US followers, you can subscribe to any search for a city and the MP3 files are included as enclosures in the RSS feed. A great (free) concept for both musicians and concert goers, once again sidestepping mainstream marketing. They plan to expand to become a worldwide service, but not too sure about NZ (Timaru? Wanganui?…)