Atsusni.com is an ongoing 'one man band' project to create a bespoke database for Northern Ireland's Music Industry

Its creator is Johnny Kelly ... all mistakes are his(!)

Mission Statement

The Project

The idea for AtsUsNI.com came when Johnny left Facebook for a year and realised very quickly within that time that he had absolutely NO idea what gigs were on where and when locally.

He realised that the whole local scene seemed to be stuck behind a Social Media login wall in order for people to be able to keep track of upcoming gigs and events.

He also noticed that there weren't yet any fully integrated, community driven, projects to help local Artists, Venues, Studios, Producers, Sound Engineers, Publications, Photographers etc. collaborate together on the scene in one single place.

Anything that existed up to then had been a square peg in round hole style set up, using cookie cutter templates that weren't bespoke to the individual requirements of the people who wanted to work together.

Or were riddled with advertising blocks that got in the way of the content, or had restrictions in place that refused to let people actually look around the site without first handing over all their personal information to be tracked and advertised to.

So, he decided to start such a project.

AtsUsNI.com is being built from the ground up to become a community focused tool for all members of the local musical community to be able to work together to build up the most informative and useful database for the whole of the Music Industry in Northern Ireland.

Without requiring anyone simply wanting to look up the information available on the site to even have a user account.

On the surface, it's a gig guide.

Once it goes completely live Artists will be able to sign up for an account, set up an Artist Profile, and create local listings of upcoming gigs they are going to play that will automatically be attached to Venue Profiles on the database.

Venues will also be able to sign up, create a Venue Profile, and start adding new events to the database that Artists can attach their gigs to.

Both sides of the process will be able to set up records that link back to eachother automatically.

These Event and Gig listings will then be fully discoverable by anyone visiting the site, without the need for them to sign up to anything in order to view/search through the database.

User accounts will of course be available for people who want to have their own profile. In order to follow their favourite artists, set up personised lists of gigs they're both interested in, or are going to, but it will not be a requirement to have an account to just find out what's happening.

This will be because on this site, unlike on social media sites, the user is not the product (more on this below in the Value For Value Model section).

Beyond being a gig guide, AtsUsNI.com is an interconnected database that will allow different members of the local music industry to contribute to building up the profiles of other members.

For example, Studios will be able to sign up for an account, set up a Studio Profile, and add new records of Singles, Albums & EPs they've worked on to the database that will automatically be integrated into existing Artist Profiles on the site.

This collaborative record creation will work in both directions, so Artists will be able to add their own Single, Album & EP records to the database that will automatically be integrated back into the Studio Profiles of the Studios who worked on them.

Publications will be able to sign up for a Publication account, set up a publication profile, and start attaching article links they've written on their own sites reviewing, or interviewing, Artists that will automatically be integrated into existing Artist Profiles and, once again, this will work in both directions.

Artists will be able to add new article links to their own Profiles that will automatically attach themselves to Publication Profiles to help build out the database.

Over time, many more cross profile collaborative tools will be built as the AtsUsNI.com Project starts to grow.

Now, onto the business model.

The Value For Value Model

The philosophy of AtsUsNI.com is to break away from the algorithm driven, advertising focused, world of social media services such as Facebook.

AtsUsNI.com is not a social network.

It is a utility first database that does not track its users for advertising purposes in any way. The user is not the product, the site is the product.

Because of this, the site gets its support directly from its users under a 'Value For Value' model.

Meaning that if you feel like you get any value out of using it, you can choose to contribute directly to keeping it alive by making either a one off donation to the project via PayPal, or you can elect to make a monthly Patreon contribution.

Links for both of these options appear at the bottom of the site, and any contribution would be greatly appreciated. You will be helping to build out the potential of this project for the future, and will be contributing directly to keeping it alive.

However, if you choose not to make a contribution you will not be restricted in any way from using the site's features.

It is a pay what you feel it's been worth to you model, and no one will be penalised for not being able to contribute.

The project being directly supported by its users means that the site does not have any need to track its userbase in order to advertise to them.

It doesn't even require anyone to sign up for an account in order to simply see the information available on the site.

There is no paywall, there is no algorithm, there is just a straight up timeline.

Like in the good old days.

I hope you will be able to offer your support to help make this project's vision a full on reality.

But wait!

Before you consider doing that you should first consider making a donation to the #SaveOurVenues campaign.

After all, a music industry database will only be useful to us so long as the venues continue to exist(!)