Endlessly posting in Facebook music community and DIY groups or saying a silent prayer as you slide into yet another band’s Instagram DMs are trials most musicians have faced in the independent touring world. This frustrating experience is in part the inspiration behind the new Indie Town app, a social networking tool built specifically with the music industry in mind.
After a soft launch in November 2023, Indie Town is now fully functional and being used across the U.S. and 14 other countries. It essentially serves two user groups: musicians/bands and “artist community” members (DIY venues, promoters, zines, videographers and more). Current users represent a large majority of the more than 50 chooseable genres, ranging from crust punk to hip hop to dream pop and beyond, and a range of levels from fresh bands just starting out to those backed by labels like Saddle Creek Records and Slumberland Records. Indie Town’s community is a testament to just how difficult booking can be for anyone.
Indie Town co-founder Brandon Taj Hanick, an Athens-based songwriter, shares the experiences and perspectives of his user base after two decades of touring in the U.S. and Europe with bands like King of Prussia and Future Lives. The idea behind Indie Town is one that Hanick and his friends had been brainstorming for a long time, well before he developed the idea through the UGA Innovation District’s I-Corps program in 2021.
“My friends and I, in other bands and our own bands, always kind of ran into a similar problem: If you’re booking a show in a city where you’ve never been, a lot of times the venue will say, ‘OK, you’ve got a hold for this night, now find two locals.’ Where do you start? The whole process was kind of clunky. Then when you do [find the bands] you’ve got to listen to them and make sure that it would make sense to be on a bill together. And you’ve got to possibly contact them through another channel. We just wanted to streamline all of that,” says Hanick.
During the innovation program, Hanick interviewed different bands outside of his own circle and received objective feedback about their touring hurdles—primarily naming money, booking and community as the biggest challenges. Then Hanick began talking with his future Seattle-based partner Adam Franklin, a fellow UGA graduate who had spent a few years in the Athens music scene. Sprung from the COVID-era norm of collaboration across cities, Indie Town became Athens- and Seattle-based; however, Hanick notes how strong the support has been over the last few years from David Barbe and the UGA Music Business program along with the local music community.
The thoughtful and well-researched approach to developing Indie Town has led to a tool that’s never existed like this before. The result is a free, invite-only social networking platform with no algorithm—three points to improve accessibility while also maintaining the authenticity of the experience by cutting down on trolls and spammers. When members join, they will receive five invite codes, which will help the technology grow sustainably and add a layer of screening that those who join are interested in building a creative community.
When a band or artist joins Indie Town, their easy-to-set-up profile will act as a mini-website with an integrated music player and video player that pulls playlists from Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc. It avoids users having to upload music or videos to yet another site, and it evens the playing field for those who don’t have a website of their own. Each profile provides everything someone needs to know in one place, unlike other social media sites where actually listening to a band’s music or viewing their videos often requires linking off to other sites.
Ultimately, better searchability was a primary goal in developing Indie Town. Users are able to search by location and genre, plus there’s a filter by location for “friends of friends” that may add a level of trust for some when reaching out to new people. Even though booking and touring is the primary focus, the app’s creative community extends beyond that by being a resource for musicians looking for photographers, videographers, media outlets, graphic designers and more. Expanding your network outside of your state, and even country, is great, but you may be surprised who you find within your own community on this app as well.
“As we grow, we’re going to make booking less time consuming so bands are able to spend more time creating and writing and recording and actually playing shows. So that’s the big goal with all of it is less time doing the stuff that we all hate, which is booking, and more time doing what we love, creating music and art,” says Hanick.
Anyone interested in joining Indie Town can request an invite code at [email protected].
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