Ask HN: Would you use a "Pandora for local artists"?

[aholmes]

This weekend, I hacked together a prototype of a web app I've been thinking about for a while - an online radio station that only plays local music. I live in Boston, and we've got an amazing (and huge) local music scene. I love discovering local music (there's not much that compares to the feeling of watching an unknown band absolutely kill a show in some basement in front of 20 people), but I haven't really found a way that's not clunky. I'm lazy - I just want to be played a bunch of local artists, and I want it to be easy to keep tabs on the ones I like (follow, buy tickets, etc).

I've been in bands since I was in elementary school, and there's always this point you get to where you've told everyone you possibly can about your new EP/track/show. Your growth sort of flatlines, and it's not easy to get it to accelerate again. The biggest problem is just getting your music in front of people that haven't heard it before - it's a logistics problem. Like it or hate it, you don't get anywhere if nobody hears it.

So I built Radius to fill these two needs simultaneously. Local artists get a new venue of exposure (a lot like "local hours" on college radio stations - remember radio?). People (like me) get a great, simple way to find and follow local bands. Win-win.

Anyways, I opened Radius up to artists in Boston last night and was really blown away by the number of signups. So with this post, I'm trying to test the other side of things. How many of your enjoy finding new local bands? Would you use something like this to do it? Are any of you artists yourself? Would you welcome a service where you could put a track in front of people in your city?

Would love to hear your thoughts/criticism/awesome ideas. Thanks in advance!

Cheers, Alonso from Radius

* If you like the concept and would like to help beta-test in a few days, there's a signup page at http://getradi.us If you're a musician and you'd like to feature a track, check out http://getradi.us/signup

[dylanhassinger]

I have heard about a dozen music startup ideas in the last year, they all sounded stupid. This one has potential.

good mission

good name

you avoid the licensing pitfalls, by dealing straight with early musicians

tricky part is the business model, getting listeners, and staffing up to support other cities. i wish u luck!

[aholmes]

Thanks! It started as a side project, and someday may evolve into a startup. Most importantly, it's something that everyone on our team wants to use. At least 4 users :)

I'm leery of selling anything to local artists (we're usually broke), but there might be some creative things we could do with ticketing. I've been thinking a bit about doing a kickstarter-esque model for shows, sort of pre-selling tickets. I'm sure there's more good ideas about.

Thanks for your feedback!

[gluemonkey]

I think it's a great idea and I have been using a service very similar to this for a little while now - http://cannon.fm/ . So, good news? This seems to be a market with an established set of users who want a solution to this problem. Keep up the good work!!

[baruch]

Great idea!

Currently I use "Get Work Done Music" as a background music service, having something effortless to stream music that would also let me discover local music would be just the right thing for me.

I signed up for your beta, would love to experience it.

[mcartyem]

I would use it.