A local Victoria software developer has put his skills to use for all the music lovers in town who want to attend more shows and discover the bands’ catalogs who are playing.
Devin Bushey loved going into record shops to find out what bands were playing in and around town, and decided he would make a virtual version of his favourite pastime which would benefit showgoers and bands alike.
He created Record Shop, a sophisticated, yet simple website which creates Spotify playlists for its users based on what bands and artists are coming to town.
“What I would do before is look up on Spotify, listen to them and if I liked them, I’d add them to a playlist,” explained Bushey.
“Throughout the workday, I’d listen to it and if there was a band I’d really like and they were playing soon, I would go see them live.”
“It really helped me find new songs and new music and it was getting me out to new shows,” he added.
Bushey got into software development and decided to combine the talents he gained in his educational pursuit of a career and his passion for local, live music to create Record Shop and released it out into the world earlier this summer.
To utilize Record Shop, you simply visit the website on your phone or computer and sign in through Spotify. Then, you can specify where you live or what festival you want Record Shop to make a playlist from.
The algorithm Bushey created will work its magic finding all the artists who are relevant to what you’ve selected and ‘Bob’s your uncle,’ you’ve got yourself a playlist that would have taken hours to make manually.
“It’s the same thing I do when I go to a record shop, if I found a song that was super rad, I’d go see them that week,” Bushey told Victoria Buzz.
Since its launch, Bushey has partnered with Rifflandia to help festival-goers create a customizable, official Record Shop playlist for themselves through Rifflandia’s website.
People who want to make an official Rifflandia playlist that’s fully customizable can select which days’ performers they want to include and how many songs they want it to have. After they enter what they want, at the click of a button, they can get themselves a playlist to prepare for Victoria’s largest music festival.
He envisions Record Shop growing through the year and the 2024 festival season with hopes of partnering with Capital Ballroom, Phillips Backyard, Laketown Shakedown and Sunfest to name a few.
“It’d be cool to pair up with Victoria Music Scene and other local music websites or Capital Ballroom or collaborate with venues,” Bushey said. “For next year I really want to get more festivals on board.”
“I’m at the point where it’d be pretty easy to make a brand specific page like I did for Rifflandia and it would help festival-goers explore who’s playing and boost the music scene,” he added.
Bushey says his whole reason for creating Record Shop was to provide Victoria’s music lovers with a free resource of exploration and discovery. All the maintenance and upkeep of the website, he is happy to take care of in his spare time so long as it is beneficial to the city’s vibrancy.
Ready to start creating your own playlist?
