It’s free
Searching was always free. There was going to be a subscription for mic hosts, $1.25 a month to list your rooms, and you’d have thought I asked for a kidney.
So it is free for everyone. Here is what it takes to keep it running.
What keeps it running
Free to you is not free to run. Every search, every map pin, every spot request alert sits on top of something with a bill attached.
- The databaseEvery listing, account, spot request, favorite and page view lives somewhere, and that somewhere bills monthly on how much of it there is.
- The app itselfHosting for the app, plus a rebuild every time something changes.
- The mapsCharged per map load, so the busier the MicMap gets, the more it costs.
- The emailEvery confirmation, spot request alert and lineup sheet is priced per message.
- The app storesApple charges $99 a year to keep an app listed, and Google charged $25 to put it on Play.
- The domainsBoth of them, renewed every year, plus the hosting they sit on.
Plus the part no service invoices for: months to build it, and daily upkeep ever since. Seeding hundreds of rooms by hand, working out which ones quietly died, answering the email, and making the thing a little better to use than it was last week.
That part is genuinely fun, and it is the part that decides whether a comic finds a stage tonight, in their own town or one they just landed in, and whether the host of that room gets a full list.
None of which is a complaint. (Okay, a little complaining. I thought $15 a year to list your mics was pretty reasonable.) It is just where the money goes, in case you ever wondered whether a tip lands anywhere.
Also, I guess I still have both kidneys, just in case the database, server and geomapping bills gang up on me. Or a rainy day. Whichever comes first.
If you’re happy with MicHunts helping you & the comedy community, buy the developer a snack
Nothing here costs anything
A MicHunter account is for comics finding and following open mics – searching, browsing the map and calendar, saving favorites, and requesting spots. A MicLister account is for hosts and venues listing a mic they run. Both are free.
So here’s the deal
List your mics. Claim the rooms you already run. Tell other comics MicHunts exists. That’s the whole arrangement.
No plan, no trial, no card, no listing cap, no upsell three screens in. A listing you write goes live the moment you submit it. A claim on a room that’s already in the database goes live once it’s approved.