Preamp.fm, a venture created in April during D.C.'s Startup Weekend as Souncheck.io, has just officially rolled out its services to the District, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Live music lovers in D.C. will sing founder Charles Worthington praises from the 9:30 Club to the Black Cat and beyond.
"We help you discover live music in your city by [introducing it to you via] a video playlist rather instead of a calendar listing," Worthington explains.
"I like music, and I feel like I keep up pretty well," says Worthington, "but I only recognize 20 percent of the bands listed at the 9:30 Club. It's too much work to Google them or look them up on Spotify." If the bands are presented in a video playlist, he says, music lovers don't have to research. They just have to listen for something they like.
Preamp shows visitors videos from bands playing a local venue that night. Links to the artist's website and to iTunes to buy the song appear, and a small navigation panel in the corner allows users to visit the venue page, to click through to buy tickets on a third-party site, to forward the video to friends or to skip to the next band playing.
Some users, he says, leave Preamp on like Pandora and "flip over to see who is playing when they hear something they like." And, unlike Pandora, which tailors music to users' tastes, Preamp exposes listeners to a wide variety of genres. "It's 'playing by proximity,'" Worthington explains. "Even if the genre isn't one I like, the fact that [a band] is playing in my city tonight makes me listen to almost anything."
Preamp is currently live in four locations; Worthington is working to get a channel up and running for Paris, France. Other options for expansion include dedicated channels for launch partners (the 9:30 Club is one), sponsors and music festivals.