I chatted with Dane Swindells, the creator of popular gig photo sharing app, Gigpic. Still being relatively new, Gigpic has already reached the 20,000 user mark and continues to increase that total daily, and with the now common scene of iPhone and Android screens at gigs these days, it looks set to take off in fine fashion. Here's what he had to say.
1. What is Gigpic?
Gig Pic is a new photo sharing app designed specifically for live music events, gigs and festivals.
2. Where did the idea originate from?
Having travelled to many festivals over the years and taking pictures it always felt cool when an artist would share / notice your photos from their shows. Its never easy though so I wanted to come up with a way to make it easier for both the artist and the fans. I think that mixed with the fact I was getting really bored of people sharing pictures of cats and what they had for tea on Instagram.
3. You've already reached the 20,000 user mark, with that continuing to rise, how does it feel to see people using and enjoying your app?
Pretty mad to be honest. I never thought that we'd get 1000 people using it let alone 20,000. Our users are from all over as well which is cool, we have a strong UK following but America and Australia are close behind, there's always some cool shows going on in those places and people love to share their experiences on Gig Pic.
4. How successful do you feel Gigpic can become?
I think that depends on how much we shout about it and how much people get behind the idea. Its not like a normal photo sharing app where you can share anything, we're encouraging music lovers to get involved and share their experiences so its not going to appeal to everyone. We have a lot of artists that are liking the idea though and signing up. We have acts like DJ Fresh, Messy MC, Blonde and a few other famous faces who have all signed up for an account, the fact they have even downloaded it is pretty mental. We're working on some exciting stuff with Jay (Messy MC) at the minute, hes a really nice guy who actually reached out to us about getting involved, so we're going to be doing some interviews, video highlights from his summer shows and exclusive content for the app which I'm really excited about.
5. What's next for Gigpic?
I don't want to sound cheesy like when someone says it's all a big secret but it kind of is at the minute. We have some really big ideas and plans and I'm just trying to make some of them a reality. We have listened to user feedback over the last few months and we're 100% committed to trying to implement some of their ideas and change some of the areas of the app they don't think are strong enough. As well as that we have nearly finished our summer festival season and we're finishing it in style with a trip to Ibiza to cover some of the closing party events. I've never been to Ibiza so Im really looking forward to that, I cant wait to check out Ibiza Rocks! Hopefully we can continue the success over summer with all the events we have covered and look at doing it all over again next year.
6. Where can we find out more about the app?
All the details are on our shiny new website www.gigpic.co - and you can follow all our action and coverage on social media too, we're on facebook / twitter etc. Hopefully some of the readers will be inspired to check out the app themselves, in which case if you search GIG PIC in the app store you can download it for free!
Twitter - @GIGPIC
Website - WWW.GIGPIC.CO
