Merry Christmas!

I took to Twitter this month and asked the good people of the Twitterverse for their suggestions of websites to feature. This one came with the comment of "This would have been handy when I was in a band." In the spirit of the season I am passing on this little gem as my gift to you.

The idea behind http://www.splitgigs.com is that perfect combination of brilliance and simplicity. The site describes itself thus:

"A SplitGig is an exchange of gigs - i.e. I let your band play at my gig, then you return the favour by letting my band play at your gig. Got it? Both bands end up with an extra gig... another opportunity to get their music heard. Simple, but effective."

So basically it does what it says on the tin. (Incidentally, this month's pointless trivia fact, that phrase was created by Liz Whiston and Dave Shelton for Ronseal 16 years ago - what did we do without it?)

The site is underpinned by a philosophy of sharing and giving the power of gig arrangements back to the bands themselves. It takes the basic elements of a 'social network' and focuses them on this specific need. Anyone, anywhere, playing any kind of music in any formation (solo or group) can join. Splitgigs even have their own take on the karma or ratings systems employed on message boards and communities elsewhere - Splitpoints. For each SplitGig that a band organises and is therefore the "host" they are awarded five points. For every SplitGig that they guest at they will earn three points. By my reckoning it is eight points for every gig arranged with a reciprocal performance.

A quick look at recently set up SplitGigs confirms the diversity of music and locations available from Singapore to Portugal, the US to Derby. There are bands offering rock and blues to progressive electronica. A quick glance at the 'Gigs to Split' page shows the concept is working. Those listed as looking have between one and twelve requests pending. It is sort of like internet dating for bands but one presumes with less nudging and winking and hopefully no regrets the morning after should you choose to meet up.

Visually the site is very clean and easy to navigate but boarders on the plain side - still the idea is so smart it doesn't need prettying up.