Nearly every aspect of life can be documented and shared instantly through mobile phones, from
what one is eating to
what one is wearing. However, the ability to broadcast what one is listening to has been curiously unfulfilled...until recently, when a spate of new social music apps came along to help fill that void.
Play by AOL Music: In keeping with its increasingly independent spirit after having been spun off from Time Warner nearly two years ago, AOL recently introduced
Play, its first mobile-only product. Self-described as “
Instagram for music,” the app provides Android phone users with a platform through which they can their share music in real time through Facebook and Twitter, complete with album artwork. Then, they can follow each other’s listening habits and comment on, or “like,” each other’s music choices. The idea is that sharing preferences yields highly valued personalized recommendations. Additional features include “MP3 of the Day,” which utilizes AOL’s music site
Spinner to discover new music, and integration with the
Rdio subscription service to sample songs in friends’ feeds.
SoundTracking: Certain songs have the uncommon power to take people back to a specific emotional place in time.
Hoping to create the first app to document a
user's personal soundtrack,
Schematic Labs’ introduced its free
SoundTracking app for the iPhone.
Unlike AOL’s social music app,
SoundTracking lets its users share their specific listening location and personal photos, adding another layer to the music to heighten the experience.
Once users sign in using Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare, they can “like” or “love” songs, add their own comments and images, as well as preview and purchase music through iTunes, if it’s available. Here’s to hoping
Randall Poster joins to keep fans sated in between Wes Anderson flicks.
SoundCloud’s Social Integration: Freshly forged partnerships with relevant social media platforms now provide
SoundCloud’s 3 million users with new ways to share and discover music. Similar to how apps like GetGlue let television audiences check in to a show to share their viewing preferences, SoundCloud’s improved
iPhone app and new app for the
Android give users the ability to “shout out” their current listening activity using Foursquare. (Comparable functionality is available for Facebook users.) Integration with
Songkick affords SoundCloud’s active database of musicians the ability to effortlessly track upcoming shows and link through for easier purchasing. With music being a perennial touchstone demarcating individuality for most consumers, expect the status update landscape to become even more cluttered soon.
