WillCall 2.0 Adds Tipping, Merch & Ticket Bundles To Concert Discovery App

WillCall is a curated concert discovery and ticketing app that currently focuses on San Francisco and New York. Recently WillCall launched 2.0 with features that allow concert-goers to tip the band, purchase merch and buy custom packages featuring tickets plus other stuff. Though presented with an emphasis on the fans, 2.0 makes it clear that WillCall can also benefit bands and venues beyond promoting shows and ticketing.

WillCall is a nice looking app for iOS and Android. I took a look at what's happening in New York this evening and it featured three interesting looking shows.

Each act was highlighted with YouTube videos and a text description plus directions to the venue. The app also estimates how long it would take you to walk, drive or take public transit to the show. That's pretty cool and since I gave it my location in Asheville, NC, I was pleased to see that the app correctly indicated that all three options would take over 10 hours. Sure would!

WillCall also has shows for San Francisco with Los Angeles up next.

The 1.0 features remind me a bit of the earlier version of Jukely I previously wrote about but the two are diverging with their current iterations.

Jukely's added a focus on matching friends with shows and creating conversations around those shows though I haven't yet looked closely at how that works.

WillCall is taking a different direction with WillCall 2.0 that focuses more closely on artists and venues as well as concertgoers.

So once you're at the show, having identified a concert and purchased tickets via the app, you can then tip the artists and purchase merch if available. Or, once you've picked out a show, you can buy a package combining tickets with merch or refreshments or whatever else the artists, venues or WillCall come up with.

Obviously this means they're dealing with a three-sided market which is no easy task. Combine that with the experience they already have with curating show choices and you have a complex offering that still works in a simple, straightforward manner for the fans.

If WillCall can successfully service fans, artists and venues, which is going to require a great deal of outreach, then they can create a pretty formidable barrier to entry. I look forward to seeing if they can pull it off.

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.