Band member location tracking before events

[arlo]

I'm often in the situation where I'm setting up for a gig and one of my bandmates hasn't arrived yet. I don't want to take the time to call them to see if they're on the way, and I don't want to text them if they're driving. But it would be helpful to know if they're on the way and how soon I can expect them, or if I need to call and remind them of the event or plan to go ahead without them.

I could add a feature to BandHelper that starts tracking participating users' locations two hours before a scheduled event, and shows their locations on a map. Or for greater privacy, it could just show whether they are moving, along with an estimated time of arrival. This would only track users who opt in, and only for users selected for the current event.

Does this sound cool, not useful or an invasion of privacy?

[iguana]

I'd try to find more reliable bandmates if that's a regular issue :-)

Seriously, while I can see how that might occasionally be useful, aren't there quite a few standalone apps that do that?

[Sonnyboy666]

I think this would be a nice feature to have. Musicians are always late ;-)

The privacy thing could be a problem. I'm from germany and we have very restrictive privacy laws here. I don't know if this is legal in other countries.
Another problem is that most of my band members are not using BandHelper, so I have to call them anyway. :-)

But I voted for it, because I think it's a good new feature!

[arlo]

Seriously, while I can see how that might occasionally be useful, aren't there quite a few standalone apps that do that?

Are there? I've only used Find My Friends for iOS. That requires either giving full-time permission to see your location, or I think you can temporarily share your location with someone, but that requires a deliberate action on the part of the person who's late, which would be harder than asking them to just send a text message. The unique (I think) offering here would be automatic location tracking only before a scheduled event.

[iguana]

No, I've not seen any that allow location tracking on a schedule.

[mikejarjoura]

Did this gain any more traction?


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[arlo]

No, but I'd still like to have it for my own bandmates. 

[Neill00]

I like the idea... Maybe along with this add a button on the bandhelper setlist to send an alert to everyone's cell to make their way back to the stage when break is over.

[arlo]

add a button on the bandhelper setlist to send an alert to everyone's cell to make their way back to the stage when break is over.

Ooh, I like that!

[danray0424]

+1 if it's opt-in. Maybe both the "ETA Mode" and "Live Map Mode" should be available (and separately opt-in-able).

[wsnyder]

Ooh, I like that!

I like that also,.

[Chris]

Ooh, I like that!

+1 indeed

[birdonstrings]

This thread made me laugh so much xD

I'm in the lucky situation that I don't have unreliable bandmates, in fact we live together. So this function would probably only show me "your guitarist is still in the bathroom" so I can shout "hurry up man! We said we leave at 2pm!"

But I do remember gigs with former bands where our Cajon player just disappeared, or a few times where our drummer basically arrived with squealing tires at the front of the stage, just in time for the first song. What a nightmare xD

Having said that: no, I would not use a tracking feature like that. But sending alerts to cellphones could in fact be useful.