Netflix for nightlife
Want to save as you rave? Subscription club and concert services could well be the answer, says Joshi Herrmann
JUST as one wing of the leisure industry stops asking for our money in monthly instalments, another one is trying the same trick.
Earlier this year we reported the rise of pay-as-you-go gyms in London. Now a Shoreditch start-up called Showmango is offering Londoners a pay-monthly clubbing app, where for £9 a month you can go to selected nights at venues such as Fabric, Lightbox, Village Underground and Proud for no fee on the door.
And US app Jukely has also just launched here, charging £25 a month, and allowing users to book for gigs happening near them two days before they happen.
Showmango is the creation of Frenchman and former club promoter James Kay, who is essentially trying to turn the phrase “Message me for guest list” into a tech business.
“We target the same people as Netflix and Spotify so they are already used to paying monthly for music, so they are comfortable with it,” he told me, adding that he is confident it will work because he has “years of relationships with lots of the biggest clubs and lots of the biggest promoters.”
Recent events available on the site have included nights at Cargo (Shoreditch), Egg (Kings Cross) and MODE (Ladbroke Grove). A £25-amonth service offers more “premium” nghts.
Jukley’s first weeks after the launch will reportedly include gigs from Rufus Wainwright and Alison Moyet, though its general focus will be on emerging artists. Users can attend a gig per day if they like but the company says the average among users in the US is two or three per month.
Showmango founder Kay told the Standard his service already has “a few thousand” users, although most of those signed up for the free first month. Kay has defined his objective as giving music fans “the ability to attend unlimited concerts and DJ nights for the price of an affordable T-shirt.”
On Showmango’s site, excited user Claire, 22, from Brixton, says she got tickets for Sven Vath live at The O2 for £25” — though some doubt surrounds the authenticity of her testimonial, given that a Google reverse image search reveals that her pretty headshot is a picture from the cover of a 2012 romantic novel by Isabelle Rae.
The traditional gym membership model — charging for how much you thought you would use a service in your most optimistic moment — might be under threat but the popularity of subscription streaming services has given Kay, and his competitors at Jukely, encouragement. Whether their services take off in London might reveal quite a lot about the personality of our nightlife.