Concert Archives is the ‘Goodreads’ Concert-Lovers Never Knew They Needed

Any frequent concertgoer is all too familiar with the feeling of P.C.D., or Post-Concert Depression. Now, when the high of screaming along to your favorite song subsides and you’re left with nothing more than a hoarse voice and blurry memories of a set that is increasingly difficult to recall, you can now turn to Concert Archives, the Goodreads concert-lovers never knew they needed.

Similar to the way Goodreads creates an interactive and archivable reading experience, Concert Archives is a hybrid platform that allows users to catalog every concert they have attended on the app or website. In an interview with us, founder Justin Thiele describes it as the “home for concerts to live beyond just the time that you're at a concert.” Part crowd-sourced database and part social media, Concert Archives provides music lovers an innovative and unique way to find community while displaying their love of live music.

With a quick search of an artist's name and city, users can find just about any concert you can imagine. Yes — even that Big Time Rush concert they went to in fifth grade where Cody Simpson opened and all anyone wanted was to be chosen as James’ “Worldwide Girl”.

If users run into a situation where they can’t find a concert already documented on the platform, they can add their own entry which then becomes available to other users who may have attended the same concert. Each concert page is a hub for photos, setlists, and notes about the event, helping attendees remember the details for years to come.

The platform dates all the way back to 2013, when founder Justin Thiele found an old file saved to a CD-R disc containing a list of every band he had seen during his college years. Despite his best efforts to update the list, he remained bothered that he didn’t have a way to cross-reference his list with friends who might remember shows he had forgotten.

“Concerts just mean so much to me, having that shared experience with bands I love and fans,” said Thiele. “People connect so hard to that, that they want to remember and share and interact with other people that were at the shows.”

The platform has a host of features that go beyond providing users with just a list of concerts they’ve attended. On every profile, the user is automatically provided with summary stats prime for music-lovers to geek-out on. From the artist they’ve seen the most, to the venue they’ve frequented most often, creating a profile gives users a rabbit hole of statistics to dive into.

In addition to providing users with their own concert archive, the platform also serves as a form of social media. Users have the ability to follow one another and get updates on their newsfeed when one of their mutuals adds a new concert. On these posts, users can leave likes and comments, building up networks of music fans long after the concert has ended.

Concert Archives both centers a user’s concert history and amasses a database of concerts internationally. While some users fancy themselves “concert historians,” using it as a space to document the careers of their favorite artists, Concert Archives has the potential to fascinate even the casual concert-goer.

With Concert Archives downloaded, perhaps users can fight off the P.C.D. and ride the concert high for a little while longer.