What happened to Songkick?

Songkick has been through multiple ownership changes (most notably the merger with Crowdsurge in 2015, the lawsuit with Live Nation, and the eventual acquisition by Warner Music Group). Its discovery and tracking features have been pared back several times. The 'Trackings' email alerts are still around but less central to the product than they were.

What's the best alternative to Songkick for tracking artists I like?

For 'tell me when these artists are touring near me,' Bandsintown is now the strongest option — bigger artist coverage and more reliable alerts. For 'log every gig I've been to,' Banded is the purpose-built choice.

Is there a Songkick alternative that combines tracking upcoming and logging past?

Not perfectly — Songkick tried to do both and ended up doing neither well. Most people now use one app for each: Bandsintown for upcoming alerts, Banded for the personal diary. Banded does also include a wishlist for upcoming gigs from artists you've added.

Songkick alternatives in 2026: where the diehards have moved

Songkick used to be the default. For nearly a decade — roughly 2008 to 2017 — if you wanted email alerts when your favourite bands announced tour dates, you used Songkick. The “Trackings” feature was best-in-class.

Then the ownership shuffles started. The Crowdsurge merger, the antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster, the eventual acquisition by Warner Music Group, the feature wind-downs. Songkick’s still around in 2026, but it’s a shadow of what it was. The alerts are flakier. The app’s been quietly de-emphasised. A lot of people who relied on it have moved on.

This piece covers the alternatives — both for the discovery / alert job Songkick used to do well, and for the gig diary job it never really nailed.

What people used Songkick for

Three distinct things, in rough order of popularity:

Tracking artists — get an email when a band you like announces a tour
Discovering local shows — see what’s coming up in your city
Marking shows you went to — implicit via the “Going” / past attendance lists

Songkick’s strength was always (1). When it worked, you’d get a reliable email two minutes after a presale went live. When it stopped being reliable, people noticed.

Alternatives for tracking artists & tour alerts

Bandsintown — the obvious successor

Best for: Email/push alerts when artists you’ve followed announce tours
Coverage: Wider than Songkick now, especially for mid-tier US/UK acts
Free, ad-supported

Bandsintown has effectively become what Songkick used to be. You follow artists, set your home city, and get alerted to new tours. Their artist-side tools are widely used so coverage is genuinely good — much better than it was in Songkick’s heyday.

The main downside is the feed is heavy on ticket-buying CTAs and recommendation noise. If you only want the alerts, the email digest still works.

Last.fm scrobble-based alerts

Best for: People who already scrobble to Last.fm
Coverage: Auto-populated from your listening history

Last.fm has a “concerts” feature that surfaces upcoming events for artists you scrobble. It’s not Songkick-replacing-level reliable but if you’re a heavy Last.fm user already, it’s free signal.

Banded wishlist

Best for: People who already use Banded for their gig diary
Coverage: Pulls upcoming events from Ticketmaster Discovery API

Banded has an artist wishlist that fires a push notification when wishlisted artists announce a show that appears in the Ticketmaster catalogue. Coverage is weaker than Bandsintown for very small independent venues (DICE-only club nights aren’t here), but it’s right there in the same app where your diary lives.

The cynical answer that’s increasingly the real one: if you want to know when a specific artist tours, follow them on Instagram and subscribe to their mailing list. Centralised aggregators have all weakened in recent years; artist-direct comms have strengthened.

Alternatives for logging shows you’ve been to

This is what Songkick was worst at, and it’s where the biggest gap was for people who wanted a personal record.

Banded — purpose-built gig diary

Best for: Logging every gig you’ve ever been to, rating them, sharing
Platform: iOS
Free

Banded is what we make and it’s built specifically for this. It’s Letterboxd-shaped but for live music — log a gig, rate the artist and venue, write a review, follow friends, get a year-in-review. Festivals get their own structure. Back-dating is a first-class flow (guide).

Setlist.fm

Best for: Caring about specific songs played
Free, web + mobile

Setlist.fm’s “I was there” lists are the closest a non-purpose-built tool comes to a diary. Detailed breakdown: Banded vs Setlist.fm.

A spreadsheet

Best for: People who specifically want full control and no app

Don’t underestimate this. Plenty of long-time gig-goers maintain a single Google Sheet. The trade-off is no metadata, no sharing, no stats — but it’s free and yours forever.

The honest landscape

There’s no single app that’s strictly better than Songkick at everything Songkick used to do. The job has fragmented:

Tour alerts → Bandsintown (or Banded’s wishlist if you want one app)
Discovery → Bandsintown or Ticketmaster directly
Personal diary → Banded (the gap Songkick never filled)
Setlists → Setlist.fm

That’s annoying if you want everything in one place. But each of these is genuinely better at its specific job than Songkick was at any of them.

Where to start

If you’re migrating from Songkick because of unreliable alerts, install Bandsintown for the tour-tracking job.

If you’re migrating because you wanted Songkick to be a proper gig diary and it never was, install Banded — that’s the app you actually wanted Songkick to be.

If you want both, that’s the most common setup now. Banded’s wishlist covers most upcoming-show alerts from the Ticketmaster catalogue, so a lot of people end up just using Banded once they’ve back-dated their history.

Download Banded on the App Store — free, iOS only.