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When Antonio Calabrese travels, he often finds himself asking the question, “Where can I see local live music?”
His answer is hapjam, an app that helps fans find nearby shows by local bands.
Calabrese grew up in Rochester and graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in business management. His older brother was in a band, and Calabrese spent a lot of his youth attending local shows in the Rochester area. Now, his son is in a band in Tampa Bay, Fla.
Calabrese and his wife, who split their time between Tampa Bay and Rochester, often look for live music venues. So, he decided to focus the software on those two locations.
“Venues and performers themselves are typically just posting about events on their Facebook page or (on) their website,” Calabrese explains. “That forces the fan who wants to go view the live music to either know who the band is or know the venue and directly look them up and see if something is happening that night.”
Hapjam puts all that information in one place for people seeking live music, whom Calabrese calls “fans,” to access easily.
“We’re aggregating that data by bringing venues and performers onto the platform to manage their schedules there, and then serving all of that data up to those who are looking for live music based on the location that they’re in, the types of genres that they want to follow, or even the specific performers or venues that they follow.”
Local musicians and bands are invited to create their own profiles in order to advertise their schedule. Local venues can create their own profiles as well.
In addition to founding hapjam, Calabrese also owns Ascentrix, a digital marketing agency that specializes in AI-powered automations. The hapjam team consists of Calabrese and three of his family members.
“We don’t require fans to sign up for an account in order to use it. You can go to the website or download the app and use it as is without an account,” Calabrese says.
When fans sign up, they can follow a band or venue to get updates and be notified when a show is coming up. It is free to create a profile on hapjam.
Since hapjam is a free platform, Calabrese hopes that brands will sponsor events in the future so that hapjam can earn a profit.
Calabrese’s goal is for hapjam to reach high density in both Tampa Bay and Rochester. The platform currently has over 300 registered fans, 366 venues spanning Tampa and Rochester, and over 1,800 performers listed.
Hapjam is currently available at hapjam.com and on the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
Audra Fitzgerald is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a member of the Oasis Project’s third cohort.
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