Upcoming got an overhaul and moved closer to Yahoo!: sign-in switched to Yahoo!-ID (del.icio.us next?), renamed from Upcoming.org to simply Upcoming and changed the address to upcoming.yahoo.com (saving another $8 for a .org TLD).
However, I still wish Upcoming would be more accepted in my region, because I consider it a great way to discover new and interesting events. A comprehensive event calendar is published weekly by local magazines, so, no problem checking on everything what’s going on in the city.
What makes Upcoming interesting is of course the part where the social software comes in: users see a filtered event list where similar minded people are attending or what events are being watched by their contacts.
Music events are in the meantime well covered by Last.fm events, based on Last.fm’s recommendation method. For small “alternative” events, like exhibitions, round tables, ad-hoc gatherings etc., word-of-mouth is still the best information source here.
The growth of Last.fm events is pretty impressing. Within 2 weeks they’ve created an amazing collection of local music events.
I wonder if it’s all user generated content or if they just pull out the information of some other event sites. Upcoming.org for instance is by 100% based on user data, exists much longer but never had so many events listed for Vienna as Last.fm has after only 2 weeks.
Besides the quantity, Last.fm recommends events based on their profiling engine. Meaning they tell you when bands you like are coming to town or if another concert matches your music taste.
Next step could be listing DJ events too. But therefore Last.fm would need the information about what music are DJs playing. They should probably have a look at the DJ database maintained by the Vienna based project PLAY.FM (or vice versa).
The music sharing site Last.fm got a few new features today: a Flash player, an event system and a so called taste-o-meter which gives you quick feedback on whether you like the music taste of the user profile you are viewing or not. It’s kind of scary when machines start matching people based on whatsoever profiling information.
However, well worth mentioning is the new event section. I guess this means some heavy competition for event sites like Upcoming.org. It’s quite clever to integrate music events in a music recommendation service like Last.fm. Needless to say that users can add event descriptions, pictures, videos and tell if they are attending.
Last.fm offers a great service, if you love music you’ll love Last.fm.