Two new entrants into the gig ads/ listings space have recently popped up.
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Jazzonlineuk.com is in its test phase and is a sister site of Music and Dance Diary run by Caroline Gresham of Smart Arts PR. Blurb reads:
If you are a Jazz enthusiast, or indeed a performer who likes to keep up with live gigs in the UK you’ll find the best listed on our new site. We’ll be announcing the launch date soon, so if you are a performer or you’re promoting an event, get in touch and we’ll be happy to publicize your event.
o – o – o – o
The other, more advanced, is Londonjazz.net, run by Southwest London-based Japanese singer Miyuki Tanaka. @LondonJazzNet has been on Twitter since September last year. The site is focussed on singer-promoted gigs on the edges of London. Miyuki’s blurb is as follows:
LondonJazz.net is a newly launched jazz networking site for jazz lovers. List your gigs now and watch this space for more coming up soon!!
UPDATE Mar 5th- in the light of the comments below and in the spirit of collaboration, Miyuki has kindly withdrawn a logo very similar to ours.
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LondonJazz.net is uncomfortably close to your website's name, isn't it?
I've just checked out the Londonjazz.net site and I have to say I am shocked that their name and the masthead are virtually identical to those on your site, Seb. To me, it looks like a straight case of 'passing off', as we say in the legal trade. People will get confused and think they are visiting your site (of 4 years) when they will clearly not be doing anything of the sort. It is either extremely naive or knowing – whichever it is, they should be directed to take down the site without delay and rename and visually rebrand the site – at peril of litigation. If you'd like to get in touch with me for professional advice, I'd be happy to assist. I'll send you an email.
Both sites are lamentably unimaginative. Anonymous 1 is correct: passing off. Someday small feathered creatures will have the IT skills to launch listings sites as brain power is clearly not an issue with their human counterparts!
There are any number of jazz websites – both for reviews and listings – and each has their own style of coverage, areas of particular interest and their own readership. Doubtless these two new sites will, in time, develop their own style.
The LondonJazz.net site looks to simply be a listings website whereas – as we all know – LondonJazzNews (still getting used to the “News” bit of that title!) offers a wealth of news, reviews and interviews. As an artist manager would I list my artist's gigs on the 'rival' .net site? If they could prove they had sufficient readership to make it worth my while, yes. As a reader – would I read LondonJazz.net? Probably not. I get advance notice of gigs happening from any number of sources – from the venues and musicians themselves, as well as the Jazz Services/Jazzwise gig listings. What makes me a repeat visitor to Seb's site is the steady stream of news and reviews.
I do have an issue with the naming of the LondonJazz.net site however, as it even shares the same capitalisation as Seb's blog. A quick google of londonjazz shows Seb's site ranks first (amusingly, above that of London Jazz Festival!) with LondonJazz.net appearing on the first page of results.
This makes me wonder about it from a musician's point of view – if you have the same name as another musician you're going to be in competition for the same domain names, twitter handle … I know one musician who changed his name after being booked for a gig because the venue thought they were booking his “more famous” counterpart.
I guess it's a lesson to us all to register multiple suffixes of the same domain name and carry it through to Facebook, Twitter and all the rest.
As a British jazz saxophonist for over 30 years I think Londonjazz.net is a breath of fresh air from these same old jazz listing sites who represent the same venues and musicians all the time
And it looks or sounds like no other site I think the previous comments are just sour grapes
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Brit Jazz Sax player: This is not a case of sour grapes, it is a serious case of commercial duplicity. As London Jazz has written, new sites in the field are welcome as they enrich the information stream.
The issue here is that LondonJazz.net is using exactly the same rendering of its name as the original LondonJazz site (now at http://www.londonjazznews.com) has been using for 4 years, building up massive and significant traffic. Not only is the name virtually identical, the masthead may use a different font and background, but it uses the key words 'LondonJazz' in an identical way. The url is also virtually identical, which will cause more conflicts.
The rest of the site looks different, which is welcomed.
In circumstance like this, the listings site needs to adopt an entirely different name and an entirely different url and design a new masthead accordingly to co-exist with LondonJazz which has effectively been trading with the name LondonJazz for 4 years.
As it stands this is totally unacceptable commercial practice, with respect to the naming and url in respect of the use of the wording LondonJazz, in particular. The main content and its presentation is, of course, welcomed.
The monitoring and policing of brand names – notably the London 2012 collateral, and many other companies such as MacDonalds and Disney (loved or unloved, it doesn't matter) bears testimony to the seriousness of such a breach.