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The Birmingham music scene is a pretty remarkable thing.

There are literally hundreds of musicians, some part time some full time, playing tiny dive bars, big venues, and DIY clubs all over the region.

I've played in the area for several years and still meet new people and hear about new bands several times a week. It's a pretty huge scene. I want to know all about it.

I've decided to compile an ever-growing database of the musicians and bands in the Greater Birmingham Area.

It's a lot of data for me to input, though. I'm going to need your help.

I need you to input all of the bands that you're in, all of the bands and musicians related to you, and I need you to share this post.

I need you and all of your musician friends to contribute.

As far as I can find, no other local scene has come together to build a comprehensive map of itself. I'd like for Birmingham to be the first.

This database will be accessible to everyone. It could turn into a great resource for people planning an event to find local talent to hire or for venue owners and promoters to find bands to fill their stages.

We're hoping this database will drum up some leads, article ideas, and band bio possibilities.

This database is part of a larger effort on behalf of AL.com to get to know the Birmingham music scene in a way that we haven't before. Help us make sure everyone is counted.

This is a protracted project that doesn't have any real end date. The database will remain open and available to input. The sooner we get it most of the way populated, though, the sooner we can start playing with the data.

I'd like to initially generate some visualizations about where the musical community plays and what kinds of genres are most popular.

I'm really looking forward to seeing just how large the Birmingham music scene is when you lay it all end-to-end.

In the form below, we're only asking for your band name, the names of the members, your band's (general) genre, and the area in which you usually play. These are the only bits of information that will be public-facing.

We also ask for your email address, but that's just for getting in touch with you if we want to do a story on you or your band or if we decide to ask further survey questions. We won't release your email address and it is not required to complete the form.

When you submit the form, there's an option to submit another response. If you play in more than one band, please fill a form for that band as well. You can even submit your friends' bands as well. Once the data starts rolling in I'll clean up the data and delete any duplicate entries. I'd rather have two submissions of the same band than no submission of that band at all.

Thanks again and tell your friends! I'm looking forward to sharing this data with you!