Life as an independent musician is hard.
While living in the internet age would seemingly tighten up tasks like booking tours or shows, it has only made it more complicated.
Last month during a Sing Out Loud Festival panel, one of the speakers mentioned North Carolina's master list of bands which helps promoters and other acts get in touch with each other and book shows.
We dreamed of starting one for Tampa Bay... and then one our area's very own just went ahead and did it.
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Here's a list of all the record stores in Tampa Bay
Based off of North and South Carolina's spreadsheet, Jordan Esker's new Google Sheet titled "Tampa/St. Pete Bands" is a crowdsourced document for bands and artists who are currently active and booking shows. Unlike lists like our static, periodically updated Tampa Bay record store directory, the Bay area band spreadsheet will be moderated by the community and not one publication.
"A list like this is really helpful to connect bands from out town trying to book shows here in the Bay area connect with other bands that they will be able to play a compatible show with," Esker told CL. The songwriter — who fronts Jordan Esker & the 100 Percent — does want to do one thing differently with the Tampa Bay document, and that's to periodically go in and moderate to ensure that all of the bands in it are active.
Have a look via Google Sheets. Let us know if there's another similar list out there somewhere.
