Been really excited lately by an iPhone app I’ve recently discovered
and put to good use. Songdrop has the potential to reshape the online musical
terrain and enhance both listening and purchasing habits.
Songdrop exists as a platform for organising stream-able music
content from sites such as YouTube and Soundcloud. The music from these
different websites, usually strewn across separate corners of the web, can be
consolidated under one system allowing users to interact with them like any
conventional collection of ‘tracks.’
Music can be added to the collection either by searching
directly for it on the phone, or via a browser extension which syncs tracks straight
from a web page into the Songdrop library.
Nowadays finding a track which doesn't exist in some kind of
stream-able form is becoming increasingly rare, but there are plenty of tracks
which though you can find on YouTube, getting your hands on a quality copy takes
some graft. Whether we are talking dusty old vinyl that even discogs isn't bearing fruits on or simply the latest vinyl only (or even digital for that
matter) release that you simply don’t have the money for at the moment but wish
were a part of your life. Indeed sourcing music takes more time than anyone
ever anticipates so for this problem I devised the ‘Need’ playlist.
Any tunes which I know I want but I can’t get immediately
for any reason get thrown in this playlist. Not only have I got a record of
what I want, but I can revisit the tunes and enjoy them wherever. Ever written
tune names down and gone back to a list a week later and had to listen to
everything again anyway – this way its immediately available to remind you. Listening
to a mix and I hear a tune I really need? Scour the track list, source the tune
online and get it in the ‘Need’ playlist. When I get some spare time I revisit
this list and go on a downloading/purchasing spree.
In the same spirit if a label uploads the promos of a
forthcoming release to soundcloud which is an unavoidable purchase I sling them
in my ‘Forthcoming’ playlist which I can then review periodically to check I've
not forgotten about any gems that have been released.
Songdrop provides a fluid and accessible way to both keep
track of music I really want to get my hands on but also lets me enjoy it while
I’m out and about while I wait, often intensifying the desire to get hold of
the track in the process.
The app’s functionality even extends to a social element
where other users can share tracks with you. The most interesting feature however
charts which tracks are being ‘dropped’ most often and hints that there has
never been greater potential for the disparate ways in which people listen to
music in the internet age to be integrated into one environment, the pulse of
which can be taken. Songdrop looks set to formalise and facilitate for mobile
users what is a reality of the internet: that ‘tracks’ as we understand them
exist outside the boundaries of media players and dedicated streaming software;
they run free on the internet.
Check it out:
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