Searching for Korea’s ever-elusive live music
Finding one’s way into Korea’s live music scene these day is proving a challenge, as the music community is becoming less concentrated in Seoul’s Hongik University area, and more spread out online across social media channels.
Two of the best English-language resources for finding upcoming concerts have been Korea Gig Guide (KGG) and the bilingual DoIndie. But KGG went offline early last year after months of inactivity, and DoIndie’s upcoming shows calendar currently has only three entries.
These two sites lost some of their momentum to social media platforms such as Facebook, and both continue to maintain an active presence on the social media site.
“I’m not sure why the site wasn’t sustainable, but it definitely was or is a format that requires regular content to keep people coming back and that was not quite happening,” said Dain Leathem, one of the authors of KGG.
Maintaining show listings requires a great deal of labor. It is not surprising that anyone engaged in this Sisyphean task would burn out over time, or pivot to more rewarding projects.
For Patrick Connor, founder of DoIndie, the main difficulty was the “amount of time required vs return on time investment.”
KGG was run by about half a dozen dedicated members such as Leathem who sought out, aggregated and formatted data on upcoming concerts. DoIndie has maintained a team of five to 10 contributors, but also allows anyone to register and contribute concert listings.
“The main problem is, we don’t have enough staff to do everything all the time,” Connor said. “We were in the U.K. for a month touring with Wetter and Wooze. Then when we got back to Korea we were helping with Busan Rock Festival, MU:CON showcase festival and a whole bunch of other things.”
Connor hasn’t given up on DoIndie, but he might have his hands full with his other musical pursuits, including managing indie record label/artist management service Beeline Records, bringing foreign bands to Korea through his live music promotion company Highjinkx, and playing drums for expat band Rough Cuts. So while DoIndie may have fallen by the wayside, it’s not due to indifference or lack of dedication, and Connor says the current lull is temporary.
“I expect DoIndie to be back shortly with lots of new content,” he said.
As for Leathem, he said he would go back to doing show listings “in a heartbeat.”
“For me personally, bands and promoters started using social media more effectively, but that mostly only helped reach those that were already fans of certain bands or venues, so I think KGG still had a role to fill,” Leathem said.