Local entrepreneur launches website to help find live music in the Thumb

Finding local live music in the Thumb has become much simpler with the launch of the website Thumb Coast Live.

Thumb Coast Live was launched by Ryder Brooks in May because he wanted to make finding and promoting live music easier for people within the Thumb Coast Area. He said the website will help to bridge the gap between promotion and performance.

At 20 years old, this is his first entrepreneurial project.

"At Thumb Coast, we want to help the artists and venues by putting all of the promotional stuff into one place," he said.

Thumb Coat Live allows people to search for live entertainment by various filters, including by artist, by venue, by genre and more. The website also has 60 featured artists on its homepage at www.thumbcoast.live.

Ryder Brooks said the website has been doing well since its launch. So far, it has seen 2,000 unique visitors and tens of thousands of interactions. He said the goal was to keep the website as simple as possible to navigate.

"It is such a fun and simple concept," Ryder Brooks said.

He said visitors to the site and the artists featured on it have been very supportive. He said everyone sees the vision and the website's goal of marketing local live talent.

Ryder Brooks is the son of another local entrepreneur, Matt Brooks, who has started up co-working spaces like The Hatch among other projects. Matt Brooks said he is proud of his son for starting Thumb Coast Live.

He said with Thumb Coast Live being a simple concept, it makes it the perfect venture for a new entrepreneur.

"It's great way to get started in entrepreneurship with a simple concept that resonates with so many people," Matt Brooks said.

Matt Brooks said he believes that Thumb Coast Live will continue to grow and blossom into a well-known site within the Thumb Coast community.

Eventually, Ryder Brooks wants to expand the reach of Thumb Coast Live and launch sister sites for other regions, such as the Upper Peninsula or the Grand Rapids Area.

Contact McKenna Golat at mgolat@gannett.com.

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