How Do You Find Live Local Music?

Where do people find live local music? Is there a regression in the information age in finding live local music?

Most of you know that OffBeat has included music and culture events in our free music and calendar listings, for as long as the magazine has been in existence. We also have always included music listings and events at OffBeat.com in our calendar listings.

In years past, music venues and clubs were relatively conscientious about sending us info on who was playing for the upcoming month. We had a print deadline and needed the information so we could list in the print version of OffBeat. Of course, we still had to call them, email them, basically beg them to send in their music events, for the sake of promoting music in the entire city and region. Most of the time, they did get the habit of sending in their calendar listings.

This is no longer the case—many venues and clubs don’t take the time to send in listings information at all. These venues either don’t have their talent booker or marketing person send in their calendars, or they believe that it’s adequate to post their listings on their own web site or on their own social media. Or it could be that they don’t particularly care if they get music lovers into their clubs, bars or venues?

Obviously, lots of stuff has changed since COVID. We’ve found that most of the venues who do send us listings, or who post their listings in our events calendar (our calendar is completely self-service, if one chooses to enter the information) understand that there are people who may be visiting the city who don’t know which club or bar has music. These folks are interested in hearing live local music in New Orleans, but they need a place to find comprehensive information. Club owners and venues should be stepping up to showcase their events in our listings calendar. But they aren’t. It’s a struggle to pull together calendar listings.

To find out what users want and need, we have an ongoing survey that asks respondents how they use live local music calendar listings, and the most convenient way to get that information. The results have been interesting, and we intend to keep the survey going to get as much information as possible to determine what users and music lovers want.

It’s clear though, that not sending in listings to OffBeat.com isn’t the best way to promote who’s playing at your club or venue. So clubs, venues and festivals: it’s not difficult to send your events to us at listings@offbeatcom. If you don’t, you’re probably missing out on a larger audience.

Here are some preliminary results of our survey, which has been posted on OffBeat.com, social media and is also in our Weekly Beat newsletter:

When you want to find or discover live music performances, which media do you use MOST?

Print: 20.4%
Web site: 64.8%
Social Media (band): 1.9%
Social media (club/venue): 11.1%
Other: 1.9%

How far in advance do you usually plan to see live music in New Orleans using the calendar of your choice?

Same day: 2.0%
1-2 days in advance: 11.3%
3 days to 1 week: 29.6%
Over 1 week: 57.4%

Would you rather go to individual web sites/social media/print media to find music, or would you prefer ONE source to get information on live music calendars?

I’m comfortable going to several sources to find ive music performances 24.1%
It’s more convenient for me to go to one source to view everything that’s going on in New Orleans: 75.9%

OffBeat Magazine

How Do You Find Live Local Music?

When you want to find or discover live music performances, which media do you use MOST?

Which web site do you use MOST OFTEN?

How far in advance do you usually plan to see live music in New Orleans using the calendar of your choice?

Would you rather go to individual web sites/social media/print media to find music, or would you prefer ONE source to get information on live music calendars?