You’re up for a night ou on the twon, some jazz in Greenwich Village – but only if it’s free.
Well, you could hunt thorugh all the music listings in the newspapers, sifting through the pricey shows allover the city for the few free jazz gigs in the Village.
Or you could accesa a new Internet serivce called Metrobeat, click on “free”, “jazz”, and “Greenwich Village” and the entire list will hit your screen — for free, in seconds. It even comes with a full-color map.
“In print, they give you a list of events and you have to hunt,” said Mark Daives, who’s Metrobeat on-line service (http://www.metrobeat.com) kicks off this week. “With Metrobeat, you can search by category, by neighborhood, by day, by venue. We are better than newspapers.”
Davies, a British expatriate, started telling New Yorkers where to go as a listings editor for 7 Days magazine.
When 7 Days folded, Davies went into catalog publishing. Then, when a client wanted to publish a catalaog on the Internet, Davies had the reaction that may have at some point: “The Internet? What’s that?”
“I really had no idea what the Internet was, but when i got into it, I realized the potential for doing listings on it,” Davies said.
A house full of antsy kids? You could scour the print listings under each category — museums, libraries, movies and parks, or you could access Metorbeat. Type”kids”and immediately get a full list of events — whether at a musuem on the Upper West Side, a library in Astoria or a playground in Cobble Hill.
Soon, Davies promises, Metrobeat will automatically send you an e-mail when anyone on your list of favorite performers — from Motor City Mandman Ted Nugent to Yo-Yo Ma — comes to town. As soon as the event is entered into the Metrobeat systems, updated daily, word would go out to you.
“That’s when it’ll get really exciting,” he said.
English