Google announced the addition of upcoming concert dates to search results for bands and music artists, by location. The goal is for users to be able to see when they’re favorite music acts are performing somewhere within their own vicinity.
“If they aren’t touring near you, the new results for concerts won’t appear, but if the band happens to be coming to your town within the next few months, you can see the concert dates listed under the band’s official website,” says search quality product manager Kavi Goel. “You can then click on the band’s official site to learn more or click on other web pages to learn more about the event or to buy tickets.”
“For example, I was searching for the [black keys] to listen to some of their music online,” adds Goel. “I wasn’t explicitly looking for their tour schedule, but now I know I should keep my calendar clear on Friday May 4, since they will be coming back to the Bay Area, and I remember how great they were at Outside Lands last year.”
Google gets the data from multiple sites (though it doesn’t get specific, beyond the bands’ sites), but the the info appears under the result for the band’s official site. Google will link the info to event sites where users can find ticketing info and whatnot.
Google does mention that you can provide rich snippets markup to have your site included as a potential source of such info.
The feature is only available on google.com in English for the time being.
Last year, Google also implemented Music Rich snippets. This week, Google announced that video markup hit Schema.org.