Podbop - Get MP3s of Bands Coming to Town
Podbop is a new service that combines a listing of concerts coming to a particular city with a database of legal MP3s from artist and label websites, so that you can navigate to your city's page and sample tunes from artists who will be in town soon. At first it sounded to me like something that is seems too complicated and generalized to really work, but its actuall very promising. The listing of concerts coming to any given city is disparate enough that there can't be anybody interested in having every MP3 downloaded for them automatically, but if you're using iTunes, the podcasted songs are kept separate from the rest of your collection and are easy to browse through. The regular listing of events and MP3s for your city is also handy tool. Bookmarking the San Diego page and clicking over to it to sample the latest artist that you've heard is coming to town is easy enough for most people to manage.
The site is still growing, but I'd say it is definitely worth keeping an eye on. The listing of San Diego concerts and MP3s can be found at: http://podbop.org/cities/us/ca/san_diego/
If you'd like to try the Podcast, which will download the MP3s for you automatically, then open up iTunes, open up Podcasts (underneath your main "Library" icon on the left side, and drag this little symbol into the main iTunes window: 
