As part of our effort to keep Concert Archives financially self-sufficient and continue building for the long term, we’re bringing back mobile ads and introducing optional ‘Pro’ accounts across the app and website.
We know these aren’t the most popular topics, but we’ve tried to be really thoughtful about how to best support our community and Concert Archives for the long term while keeping the core experience free and accessible.
The most important thing to know is that Concert Archives is still free to use, and Basic accounts can still:
- Add unlimited concerts
- Upload unlimited public photos
- Upload unlimited public videos
- Use Concert Archives without paying anything
Basic accounts now include ads and have limits on private photo and video storage. That being said, well over 99% of users are below these limits.
Upgrading to a Pro account removes the ads and increases the private photo and video storage limits. Upgrading to Pro+ enables unlimited private photos and videos.
Why Monetize?
We really value Concert Archives being financially self-sufficient.
That has allowed us to grow without outside investment and be independent. It’s given us the flexibility to do what we think is best for our community, without needing to prioritize aggressive growth or the short-term goals that can come with investors.
The tradeoff is that Concert Archives needs to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of running and improving it.
And that has served us well! We’re nearing 13 years of Concert Archives and we’re still growing and building toward the future. 🙌️
App Usage Rising
Historically, ads on the Concert Archives website have accounted for the bulk of our revenue and provided the foundation that allowed us to grow.
The way people use Concert Archives has been evolving over time, though.
With major updates to search engines and the growth of AI answers, it’s become harder for websites like Concert Archives to grow traditional web traffic.
And as we’ve improved the mobile app, more and more people have shifted their usage from our website to our app.
That means more of the usage is moving away from the part of Concert Archives that currently generates most of the revenue.
Bringing Mobile Ads Back
This isn’t our first time we’ve had ads in the app.
We originally added mobile ads in November 2022, but removed them about a year later. They didn’t generate very much revenue, the same ads were often repeated, and they added a lot of complexity to the app.
At the time, most people were also still using the website, where advertising was easier to manage and performed better.
As app usage grew, it became clear that the app would need to pull its weight financially as well.
In 2025, we experimented with promoting Concert Archives itself inside the app, including Patreon, our Merch Store, social media accounts, and the blog. We liked the idea, but that didn’t have enough of an impact to replace mobile ad revenue.
With Version 17, we’ve brought mobile ads back using a different provider. The technical complexity has improved significantly over the last few years, and we’re hopeful that this will provide a better user experience and create a more meaningful source of revenue.
Basic, Pro, and Pro+ Accounts
When deciding what should be included with free and paid accounts, we focused on features that either have an ongoing cost for us or remove a source of revenue.
That’s why Basic accounts include ads and have limits on private photo and video storage.
Public photos and videos help the whole Concert Archives community by giving everyone more ways to remember and explore concerts. So we wanted public uploads to still be unlimited for everybody.
Private photos and videos are different. They are valuable to the person uploading them, but they don’t provide the same benefit to the rest of the community, and photos and videos are among our largest ongoing hosting expenses.
More than 99% of current users fall well within the Basic limits, so most people will not need to upgrade unless they want an ad-free experience.
The app and website show how much private storage you’ve used. If you’re over the limit, your existing private media will remain. You just won’t be able to upload more private media until you upgrade or get back below the limit.
Here’s how the three account types compare:
| Basic | Pro | Pro+ | |
| Cost / month | $0 | $3.99 | $8.99 |
| Private video uploads | 1 hour | 5 hours | Unlimited |
| Private video embeds | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Public videos | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Public photos | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Private photos | 100 | 2,000 | Unlimited |
| Ad-free | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| 10% merch discount | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| Profile badge | – | Pro | Pro+ |
Video embeds don’t use Concert Archives storage, which is why private embeds remain unlimited on all accounts.
Both of the Pro accounts include an ad-free experience and a 10% merch discount.
The main difference between Pro and Pro+ is private media storage. Pro includes a larger private photo and video allowance, while Pro+ is unlimited.
Pro and Pro+ each receive their own profile badge as well.
What About Patreon?
Patreon and Pro are separate and are designed for different purposes.
Pro is focused on upgrading your Concert Archives experience, with things like an ad-free experience and additional private media storage.
Patreon is focused more on community, behind-the-scenes access, and directly supporting the work we do. Patrons get things like development sneak peeks, livestreams, community discussions, and other Patreon-specific perks. Learn more
Some people may primarily want an upgraded Concert Archives account. Others may care more about following along behind-the-scenes and supporting the project through Patreon. And some may choose both.
You don’t need either one to keep using Concert Archives for free.
Building for the Long Term
Concert Archives has been around for almost 13 years, and we intend to continue improving it for years to come.
We’ve tried to approach these updates in a way that keeps the core Concert Archives experience free and accessible while also helping support Concert Archives for the long term:
- Concert tracking remains free and unlimited
- Public photos and videos remain free and unlimited
- Existing private media remains private and accessible to the uploader
- Well over 99% of users fall within the Basic limits
- Pro focuses on private storage, an ad-free experience, and a few additional perks
- Patreon continues to offer a separate community and behind-the-scenes experience
If you’re curious about your current private storage usage, you can check it in your account settings. If you have any questions, you can always email us at [email protected].