PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF GROOVEBUG
Last week, Groovebug, the Evanston-based music app service, launched its latest: The Concert Vault for iPad.
The new app, a partnership with legendary archivists Wolfgang’s Vault, gives fans exclusive and rare concert audio and video recordings from the 1950s to present day. The collection started with famed concert promoter Bill Graham’s archives, and now includes content from such outlets as Daytrotter, Paste magazine, and the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals.
Converting the Concert Vault to a Groovebug app offers music fans some pretty cool access and perks. Here are our top five favorites of this new platform.
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If you buy it, you get two free full-concert downloads every week.
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The Concert Vault’s rare recordings are a coup for nostalgists who remember seeing The Black Crowes at the dawn of their career in the 1990s. Or those millennial DeadHeads dying to see The Grateful Dead play the 1978 New Year’s concert at Winterland.
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Users have access to every single Daytrotter recording session, including Bon Iver’s early career sets.
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The app is compatible for AppleTV users to allow the concert footage to come to life on your HD TV.
- The app syncs up to the Wolfgang’s Vault memorabilia store where folks can buy rare T-shirts, posters, photos and backstage passes from yesteryear.
You can download the app for free. Subscriptions run $3.99/month or $39.99/year. Bonus: Those who sign up now get a free, exclusive, vinyl-edition 1978 Van Morrison concert from New York’s Bottom Line club. That alone is enough to stone you. To your soul.
Selena Fragassi is a contributing music critic for Chicago.