Apple taps into Shazam with new live concert features in Music and Maps

Apple has added a couple of new features with Apple Maps and Music to help users discover and explore live shows. New hand-curated Guides in Maps showcase music venues and allow you to browse their upcoming shows right in the app. In the Music app, a new Set Lists space lets you browse the set lists for major artist shows and tours.

The Guides are somewhat limited. You can access them at apple.co/MusicVenues, or just browse Guides for one of the selected cities. While there are over 40 guides total, that’s only enough to span 10 cities worldwide: Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, and Mexico City.

The guides may be useful if you happen to live in or near one of those cities, but most Maps users aren’t going to be able to answer the question “Are there any good live shows near me this weekend?” As with other Guides in the Maps app, these are all human-curated and maintained, not just algorithmic search results.

Beyond the Guides, Maps links directly to the Shazam concert discovery module (launched last year) to help you find upcoming shows. Just pick a venue–including those that are not featured in Guides–and tap the Tickets button, then choose Shazam to see a list of upcoming shows and an easy link to buy tickets.

In the Music app, a new Set Lists section (available at apple.co/setlists or search “Set Lists” in Apple Music) lets you see the set lists for major tours, so you can brush up on the band’s repertoire before your big night out. It’s rather spartan right now with only six lists available, including Ed Sheeran and Blink 182, but Apple says it will grow over time. For each artist’s set list, you’ll be able to browse upcoming shows without leaving the app, again using Shazam’s concert discovery module.