ARND: A Map for Live Music Happening Right Now

The idea

Live, local music is everywhere and almost impossible to find. Buskers, pop-ups, secret sets, small-venue gigs. They happen all around you and vanish without a trace. ARND ("around") is a concept for fixing that: open the app the way you'd open a maps app to find food, and see live music near you, tonight.

The stage is outside. It's a thought experiment about three audiences sharing one map:

• Fans discover shows nearby, follow artists, and get a nudge when someone goes live around the corner.
• Performers get discovered in a far less saturated space than the streaming platforms, and earn through tips and bookings.
• Venues and talent seekers find emerging artists with a real live following.

What I wanted to explore

The interesting design problem isn't the map. It's credibility. So the core loop is built around showing up: you check in at a show, that check-in becomes a verified "proof of attendance," and your ratings and attendance become an artist's real signal. A performer's reputation grows from people who actually came, not from follower counts. "Hidden gems" (high live draw, low online following) surface to venues from that data.

How it's built

A native mobile app in React Native and Expo (Expo Router), with Supabase for data and auth and React Query for the live feed. The prototype focuses on the fan side of the loop: the map, the feed, saving shows, and the check-in flow.

This one is a concept piece, a way to think through a two-sided marketplace and a reputation system end to end, in something you can hold in your hand.