These go to eleven: Urban Airship powers Interscope push notifications, Rock Show brings concert posters to the iPad

I’m going to try and prevent myself from assaulting you, gentle reader, with any trite phrases or comments about the Portland mobile scene “rocking out” or whatever. But honestly, it’s really really difficult when opportunities like this arise.

You see, there are two things that have hit my plate recently that are just too good to pass up. First, Portland-based Urban Airship—makers of magical behind the scenes technology that helps mobile app developers communicate with their customers—has landed Interscope Records as a customer. And second is Rock Show, a new Portland-developed app that brings a gallery of beautiful concert posters to the iPad.

Portland is definitely… Oh wait. Sorry. Here’s the news.

So Interscope Records—home to artists like Weezer, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, and Mary J. Blige—will be using the Urban Airship push notification service to keep fans in closer contact with their favorite artists. Or as Urban Airship puts it:

So I guess you can say that we sort of know people who know people who know people who are rock stars.

What we do know is that push notifications are a fantastic way to engage with your fans, whether they listen to you sing, read your new posts or use your technology. Ultimately what they are doing is building up their fan base and cultivating a channel to further monetize existing content. Consumers win because they opt-in to control what push notifications they want to receive from specific artists and brands.

That’s pretty big news. Considering that Interscope is part of one of the largest music groups in the world, Universal Music Group.

Push notifications are one of the newest ways for artists to promote their work. One of the oldest? Concert posters.

And for that we’ve got Portland-based Rock Show, a new app designed to let folks collect and purchase concert posters from their favorite artists. And because of the iPad’s form factor and screen, it’s simply a beautiful app.

Plus it’s kind of like the dorm room you always wanted. Except for the Union Jack on the ceiling.

The Rock Show application allows users to discover more about performing artists via quick links to both Wikipedia and the iTunes store.… All concert posters featured in Rock Show are available for purchase directly through the iPad application. In most cases the posters will be shipped to the purchaser by the artist or design studio that originally created them.

The app is specifically developed for the iPad, so if you’ve got one, you can download Rock Show from the App Store.

For more information on the Interscope deal, see the Urban Airship Interscope press release. For more on Rock Show, see the Rock Show press release.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy