trouble using an api on heroku from a rails app - ruby-on-rails

Question

for a project at school I am trying to use the Bandsintown api to display upcoming concerts for artists that a user follows on my site. I am able to use the api the way I want to in development but when it comes to my heroku site in production nothing displays and I receive no errors, in fact I just receive an empty array. Perhaps you need permission from Bandsintown to use their api on heroku? I tried contacted them but have not heard a response yet.
My question, why am I able to get a response from Bandsintown on development but not in production? New to web dev in general, so I haven't come across this before..
Here is my code:
calendar_controller.rb
class CalendarController < ApplicationController
require 'uri'
def index
#user = current_user
#hash_version_array = []
#user.follows.each do |follow|
response = HTTParty.get("http://api.bandsintown.com/artists/#{URI.escape(follow.artist_name)}/events/search.json?api_version=2.0&app_id=#{app_id}&location=use_geoip")
#hash_version = JSON.parse(response.body)
#hash_version_array << #hash_version if #hash_version != []
end
#hash_version_array
end
end
calendar/index.html.erb
<h1><%= #user.name %>'s Calendar</h1>
<div>
<h4 class="inline"><%= link_to "Calendar" %></h4>
<h4 class="inline"><%= link_to "List" %></h4>
<h4 class="inline"><%= link_to "Map" %></h4>
</div>
<br>
<% #hash_version_array.each do |date| %>
<h3 class="artist_name"><%= date[0]["formatted_datetime"] %></h3>
<% date[0]["artists"].each do |info| %>
<h1 class="artist_name"><%= info["name"] %></h1>
<br>
<%= image_tag("#{info['thumb_url']}", class: 'artist_img') %>
<% end %>
<br>
<br>
<%= date[0]["venue"]["name"] %>
<br>
<%= date[0]["formatted_location"] %>, <%= date[0]["venue"]["country"] %>
<br>
Tickets <%= date[0]["ticket_status"].titleize %> <%= link_to("Buy", "#{date[0]['ticket_url']}") %>
<br>
<hr class="artists_hr">
<% end %>
Response from Bandsintown while working in development:
From: /Users/jasonquaccia/Sites/code/projects/capstone/the-music-project/app/controllers/calendar_controller.rb # line 15 CalendarController#index:
4: def index
5: #user = current_user
6: #hash_version_array = []
7:
8: #user.follows.each do |follow|
9: response = HTTParty.get("http://api.bandsintown.com/artists/#{URI.escape(follow.artist_name)}/events/search.json?api_version=2.0&app_id=el_proyecto_de_la_musica&location=use_geoip")
10: #hash_version = JSON.parse(response.body)
11:
12: #hash_version_array << #hash_version if #hash_version != []
13: end
14:
=> 15: binding.pry
16: #hash_version_array
17: end
[1] pry(#<CalendarController>)> #hash_version_array
=> [[{"id"=>10847723,
"title"=>"Metallica # AT & T Park in San Francisco, CA",
"datetime"=>"2016-02-06T19:00:00",
"formatted_datetime"=>"Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 7:00PM",
"formatted_location"=>"San Francisco, CA",
"ticket_url"=>"http://www.bandsintown.com/event/10847723/buy_tickets?app_id=el_proyecto_de_la_musica&artist=Metallica&came_from=67",
"ticket_type"=>"Tickets",
"ticket_status"=>"available",
"on_sale_datetime"=>"2015-11-06T10:00:00",
"facebook_rsvp_url"=>"http://www.bandsintown.com/event/10847723?app_id=el_proyecto_de_la_musica&artist=Metallica&came_from=67",
"description"=>"CBS RADIO's The Night Before with Metallica and Cage the Elephant",
"artists"=>
[{"name"=>"Metallica",
"mbid"=>"65f4f0c5-ef9e-490c-aee3-909e7ae6b2ab",
"image_url"=>"https://s3.amazonaws.com/bit-photos/large/4304043.jpeg",
"thumb_url"=>"https://s3.amazonaws.com/bit-photos/thumb/4304043.jpeg",
"facebook_tour_dates_url"=>"http://www.bandsintown.com/Metallica/facebookapp?came_from=67",
"facebook_page_url"=>nil,
"tracker_count"=>2341049,
"url"=>"Metallica",
"website"=>"http://metallica.com"}],
"venue"=>{"name"=>"AT & T Park", "city"=>"San Francisco", "region"=>"CA", "country"=>"United States", "latitude"=>37.7784059, "longitude"=>-122.3894401}}]]

Answer 1

Found out why I am not getting anything while in production on Heroku, has to do with location=use_geoip on this line:
response = HTTParty.get("http://api.bandsintown.com/artists/#{URI.escape(follow.artist_name)}/events/search.json?api_version=2.0&app_id=#{app_id}&location=use_geoip")
This works locally because it can reference my location and then search Bandsintown for the correct information. However, on Heroku it does not know how to correctly reference a location. Therefore I don't receive any results.