[Hamstrung]

Interesting. It's good to see someone addressing the creative culture being pushed out of their traditional urban locations with music clubs closing at an alarming rate.
Could this be "Uber" for music clubs? They'll likely have to get around current bylaws and regulations in the same way for it to work. I know that musicians have been doing this sort of thing for a while with small intimate "livingroom" concerts but this may become the norm if the bars and clubs that typically showcase live music become Shoppers Drug Marts or condos.

Toronto startup turns homes and yards into concert spaces

 

[Steadfastly]

That is a great idea.

 

[Granny Gremlin]

It's cool, but hardly new, just the corporatisation of what's been happening for years - see Extermination Music Night series and it's successor Against Life as prime examples. I've been to shows in The Don Valley (e.g. the old King St bridge to nowhere; good old standby) and the Symes Waste Transfer Station (which was HUGE; literally 1000s of people - Lullabye Arkestra + Tropics back to back sets were EPIC; coulda done with less spray paint fumes though).

It's cute but it cannot hope to replace any of the closing venues due to a) capacity - houses, laundromats etc can't hold the numbers that the venues could, and b) legality - backyard or house shows are cool, but do that with a punk band vs an acoustic folk-spectrum band as pictured and see what happens (Toronto is NIMBY as fuck - even in some of the not so nice neighborhoods). I loved EMN; clandestine one off shows are exciting and a lot of fun (even if they do get busted up half the time; it's surprising which ones weren't) but what the scene really needs is safe reliable spaces. And that's what we are losing right now. Not just to outright closure, but to gentrification (rising costs - I predict Pay to Play coming back in a big way) and reorganisation (venues changing format - e.g. Sneakey Dees moving from indie rock in the general sense to dance nights and then hardcore/metal only when the Big Bop closed and their booker moved to Dees). What this new app/service can do is provide venues for things that are not feasible in a 'proper' venue due to the costs vs expected revenue; things that don't make the same level of noise that a punk band would, and where you are only expecting 10-40 people to show up anyways. That is a real need, but we also need proper venues ....or looser rules/easier process to navigate for approval to do shows in public spaces - not that that helps much in winter, but it's a start (apparently they're working on this at council, but I haven't heard about any actual progress in a while).