GigaTools: Auto-Announce Upcoming Shows

GigaTools is a straightforward event announcement service that allows you to automate the posting of your gigs on multiple sites. They're based in Berlin and launched in late 2009. GigaTools recently added Soundcloud integration and are worth a look if you're wanting a simple tool for making sure your show announcements get regularly updated and are available beyond your homesite.

GigaTools is designed to serve individuals acts or group rosters, so it's useful for both artists managing their own business and for labels and related entities. Pricing starts at 2 British pounds a month, currently around $3.25 US.

Though some folks now expect everything to be free, I'm a big fan of low-cost web services because charging a fee suggests that the company will be able to stick around and keeping it affordable means that it's in most folks grasp. Since you can get a month-long free trial, you have plenty of time to decide if they way they're doing things is for you.

GigaTools has a solid range of features with the ability to post gigs on the site and have them autoposted on Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud. Via the power of Ping.fm and RSS feeds a much wider range of options are available in addition to direct integrations. They also have widgets to install on MySpace, blogs and other sites.

You can search for gigs listed on GigaTools to see who's using the service. It seems to have a solid group of users but not in overwhelming numbers. That's one of the reasons I think it's good that they're charging a basic fee. If they have a lean team and continue to improve the product without overreaching, they can grow slowly and not run into the wide range of problems that free services face, from managing sudden spikes in new users to monetizing without ruining the service.

My primary concerns about GigaTools are the web design and the lack of a mobile option.  It is a simple service so the site might work fine on smartphones but the somewhat drab homepage is not a good first look.  I like the fact that they're not overdoing the design on their gig listings so maybe a similar look could be extended to the homepage for a more inviting intro.

For more on what they're up to, I'd suggest checking their blog and Twitter account.

Hypebot contributor Clyde Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. Flux Research is his business writing hub and All World Dance: World Dance News is his primary web project.