BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A lot of Joshua Thomas’ friends ask him how his night went.
At his job at Saturn, Thomas gets to see a lot of shows from bands passing through Birmingham. As a result, he would tell them about whoever he had seen play the night before. The common response would lead to something big.
“They would get upset that they didn’t know about the show,” Thomas said. “It occurred to me that I could get an aggregator website where people could know what is going on all the time.”
Using coding skills he picked up on his own over the past several years, Thomas slowly began trying to build an app where there was a full list of whoever was playing at the many different night clubs around town. The result was Crier, which has been billed as “every Birmingham show, DJ set, and open mic in one app.”
The app first launched Jan. 27 and already has over 700 users.
Chris Hawkins, Thomas’ childhood friend, helped him in the process, having 20 years of experience in tech design and user experience.
“It’s just been amazing that was a need that a lot of people had,” Hawkins said.
For Thomas, he wanted the spirit of Crier to be a celebration of Birmingham’s live music scene, including shows for those under 21.
“I kind of want it to be a spiritual successor to Black & White,” he said, referring to the now-defunct alternative which was published from 1992 to 2013.
More importantly, Thomas and Hawkins wanted Crier to be something people would enjoy scrolling through, which is why there is no paywall or advertisements on the app.
“I hate ads,” Thomas said. “I don’t want them anywhere.”
Hawkins said the response so far has been very encouraging, showing that the app could help more people support live music and Birmingham’s local arts scene.
“The main goal is to make the Birmingham DIY scene stronger, so if it can be a place to foster the community, that would be great,” he said. “The main goal is to give them back to the community.”
Thomas and Hawkins continually tinker with Crier, adding more venues and finding ways for people to add shows or events on the app.
The app is free and can be downloaded on all social platforms.
Click here to go Crier’s Patreon page.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cbs42.com ’
