A social network of touring musicians who register their bulky, heavy gear(amps, drums, etc) into an online database and then match their gear with that of others around the world. Along with what gear they use, the musicians can register their knob/fader settings.

Hauling bulky, heavy gear is the biggest pain in the ass (and a large expense) in touring.

So the next time you tour northern European island states, you can meet up with your match-made "tour buddies" at the club in Reykjavik and they'll give you your gear for the night.

Of course, back in New Orleans, you can likewise expect to meet a Japanese punk band at the Saturn Bar to lone them your amp for the night.

For the obvious issue of reliability, ie. someone not showing up with your gear: you'd need a redundant system that narrows as the gig date and showtime approaches. Three people agree to give you an amp for June 15th show at 10:00pm. On the day of the show, you can call each to see can really do it, then choose one person as your "tour buddy" for the evening (maybe one more can be on call).
-- frosto, May 29 2008

Couchsurfing http://www.couchsurfing.com
A website enabling travellers to meet up with and/or stay with locals [imaginality, May 30 2008]

dunno... on the one hand if you own your own concert-hall PA system and aren't currently touring, that's a fair amount of equipment going to waste... on the other hand I've been known to make reflexive growling noises when anybody wants to play with my stuff and hover nervously in-person over the few I lend stuff to.
-- FlyingToaster, May 29 2008


People trade houses for vacations so I don't see why this wouldn't work. Ideally, there'd be an authoritative third party to coordinate things and maybe escrow funds.
-- phoenix, May 29 2008


You deleted my inoffensive and entirely on-topic annotation. Why?
-- Texticle, May 30 2008


[admin: Point of order - Texticle, the halfbakery web server never saw your annotation (it's not in the protocol-level log of additions and removals), and the poster most definitely didn't delete it. Blame technology, and repost what you remember.]
-- jutta, May 30 2008


[+] This is worth suggesting on couchsurfing, perhaps, if it hasn't been suggested already. It has heaps of interest groups for discussions, and through which people find other people with similar interests to meet up with or stay with. There's bound to be a group for musicians.

One possible downside I see with this idea is that if you're going to be playing in a lot of different places, say 12 cities, you need to find people willing to loan their equipment in all 12 of those cities - 11 out of 12 won't do.
-- imaginality, May 30 2008


rental if the city is large enough to support a pro-musicians' store which could be counted on to have something in stock when you show up.
-- FlyingToaster, May 30 2008


[imaginality], I'd never seen couchsurfing.com, good link. So far as the downside mentioned, I think its more a chicken or egg thing. Instead of looking at it as finding the people to compliment your tour schedule, you make your tour schedule by which people are willing to compliment your tour needs.
-- frosto, Jun 02 2008



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