Bandsintown Concerts

Review by eFreeware

If you go to shows often enough that keeping track of who is touring has become a chore, Bandsintown is built for you. It watches the artists you follow and tells you when they announce a date near you, so the calendar work happens in the background rather than in your head.

The app has been on Android since April 2012 and has passed 10 million installs, with a 4.6 average across more than 265,000 ratings. That kind of history suggests a tool people keep installed rather than try once, which fits a job that only pays off over months of concert announcements.

It is free to download and carries ads, and there are no in-app purchases to consider. For a fan who mostly wants a reliable heads-up when a favorite act comes to town, that is a straightforward proposition.

Following artists and letting the app do the watching

The core loop is simple: you follow the artists you care about, and the app notifies you when they schedule shows in your area. You can also connect a Spotify account so the artists you already listen to feed into that list, which saves building a following list by hand.

Beyond the alert itself, you can set reminders for shows you plan to attend, so a date you noticed weeks ago does not slip past. The app also lets you read reviews before you go, which is useful when you are deciding whether a venue or a tour is worth the trip.

There is a request feature as well: if an artist has no date near you, you can ask for a tour stop in your town. It is not a guarantee of anything, but it is a way to register interest rather than simply waiting.

Searching beyond the artists you already know

Bandsintown is not limited to the names on your follow list. You can search concerts, festivals and venues worldwide, which makes it useful when you are traveling and want to know what is happening wherever you happen to be.

Suggestions for new acts and shows follow what you already like. That gives it a second role beyond notification: a way to find out about acts you have not followed yet, using what it already knows about your listening.

Between the two, the app covers both directions of live music discovery: keeping up with the artists you love and stumbling onto ones you have not heard.

Tickets, reminders and the practical side of a night out

When you decide to go, the app points you to tickets from official sellers. For anyone wary of paying over the odds or landing on a questionable listing, that is the part that matters most.

Reminders and reviews round out the planning: you can note a show and check what other attendees thought before committing. None of this replaces the ticket seller itself, but it keeps the decision-making in one place.

The app is free, with no in-app purchases. Ads are present, which is the trade for not paying.

What it asks of you, and where the limits sit

The app works best when it knows what you listen to. Following artists manually is the baseline, and syncing a Spotify account is the shortcut, so a listener who does not use that service has more setup to do before alerts become useful.

Alerts are also only as good as the announcements behind them. The app tells you when an artist schedules a date near you; it cannot conjure a show that has not been booked. The tour-stop request feature exists precisely because that gap is real.

Ads are the other cost. It is free, and there are no purchases, but the app is ad-supported, so you are trading attention for access. Whether that is acceptable depends on how often you would otherwise miss a show you wanted to see.

The app was last updated in September 2026 with bug fixes, so the current release is a maintenance one rather than a feature drop.

The listener this fits

This suits people who go to shows regularly and follow enough artists that keeping track manually has stopped working. If your concert decisions start with "who is touring near me this month," the app answers that question without you doing the legwork.

It also fits travelers who want to know what is on in an unfamiliar city, since venue and festival search works worldwide. And it fits anyone who wants tickets from official sellers.

The developer's pitch is that you will never miss another show, and the app has been recognized by TIME and Business Insider among their best apps. Those are the developer's and the publications' judgments, not a promise about your own experience, but they line up with the install and rating figures.

A dependable concert calendar for regular gig-goers

Bandsintown is worth installing if live music is a regular part of your life and you want the announcements to come to you. Following artists, optionally syncing Spotify, setting reminders and buying from official sellers covers the whole arc from hearing about a show to being at it.

The trade-offs are modest but real: ads, and a system that depends on you telling it who you care about. For a free app with no purchases, that is a fair exchange for most fans.

If you see a handful of shows a year and mostly hear about them from friends, the app adds little. If you see many, or you travel and want to know what is on, it earns a place on your phone.

What's new in version 10.3.6

Bug fixes