LightThread – IT, Business and Marketing Strategy

Matt Haeck, Showigniter and Social Music

It has been a busy few months here at Lightthread. Between launching a new business, winding down some projects and beginning lots of new ones, we’ve been a little derelict with our blogging duties. But on the other hand, it’s important also to recognize that blogging isn’t our business, just one of the many activities associated with it!

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting Matt Haeck (@matthaeck on Twitter), Randolph Robisno (@randolphrobisno) and Joe Garner (@joegarner) as they made Lightthread offices their Kansas City “Softlegs” tour stop. They had never visited here before and we were happy to show them a few local places like The WestSide Local before they played for an enthusiastic audience.

Matt’s stop was part of our promotion and development effort for Showigniter, an online music service that brings together bands, fans and venues. The system works like this: bands create an offer in any one of 328 markets that Showigniter currently supports, they publish the offer through social media channels like Facebook or Twitter and fans and sponsors pledge to bring the band to that city. No money is paid up front, but if enough money is pledged, the show ignites, the band and venue are paid and the band plays the show. Neat isn’t it?

We hope that a whole bunch of bands that otherwise find the logistics of booking tours cumbersome or frustrating will find the system useful and like Matt, Randolph and Joe, it will enable them to play cities they’ve never visited before. But this system and this new approach to bringing live music to your town won’t succeed without YOU. We love the idea of using Showigniter to book shows in non-traditional venues like house parties and to help bands from the indy music scene who might be still building their fan base to create gigs in places they otherwise wouldn’t have visited.

We are eager to hear your input, so feel free to leave comments!

Our hats also go off to Matt, Randolph and Joe for a fantastic concert!! There’s nothing like hearing their soulful tunes and soaring harmonies with friends in an intimate setting! We highly recommend that you catch them if you are near Nashville or happen to run across them on tour!

Here’s the live video that was recorded during the concert (By the way, early sound problems with UStream are fixed later in the recording)