We think Soundrop, the group listening platform, is cool for a number of reasons: It just put listening rooms on Facebook. Its listening rooms apparently can scale like crazy due to the use of some arcane technology from Ericsson called Erlang. They can also exist concurrently in different places on the internet. Like, if you’re…
We’ve heard of other technologies that can detect how much “energy” is present in a song, as well as how “danceable” it is (including this one from our publisher), but we’ve never seen one rack up as many celebrity DJ endorsements as Mixed In Key, so we figured this Mac and Windows DJ tool was…
There’s a good reason no company has released a music subscription service that delivers the choicest cuts to DJs, even though most of them use laptops for some or all of the music they play in dance clubs around the world. The problem: DJ software is very specialized, with advanced features you won’t find in…
If you haven’t heard of Reactable yet, basically, it’s a lit-up musical table interface upon which you can place physical objects and manipulate them in order to create and remix music. As you might suspect, there is an app version ($10, iOS or Android) — but that is not what concerns us here, at least…
We have new and interesting apps to share with you in our latest installment of This Week In Music Apps, including iOS, Android, and web apps, just like we do (or try to do) each and ever week. First, take a peek at our latest app reviews (as opposed to hardware):
Last time Evolver.fm checked in with listening room app Budtobud, we praised its functionality, but lamented that its interface felt “overthought, with lots of windows, menus, and modes.” Partially in response, Budtobud recently rolled out a revamped, slimmed-down version of the service, but my prognosis is… better, but still a little too cluttered.
App.net is garnering lots of attention among the technorati for its innovative business model — a subscription-based, ad-free, microblogging social networking service and an open API for third-party developers. A “real-time social feed,” App.net pledges to do basically what Facebook Connect does, but without being Facebook (see “Dear Mark Zuckerberg“). Although it only reached…
Shuffler.fm, one of our favorite ways to “channel surf the music web,” has a new iOS version of its online music magazine we liked so much last August. The Shuffler.fm iOS app (free; universal iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad version) builds upon the success of the web version, but of course, it’s one thing to pore over a…
Attention, dance music and electronica DJs. Nobody has to know that you’re using this app, unless you want them to. And it can make your sets more interesting. We promise. To use DJ Mix Fix ($1), you would plug your iPhone into your DJ setup using an auxiliary input, then toggle to that input as you…
It’s no secret that DJs trigger samples made by other people. So why keep it a secret by only playing audio? Video DJs bring a new level of transparency to the DJ craft by including video in the mix, usually depicting the source of the audio sample (although really, they can attach any video to…
We’ve seen at least ten companies try to solve the riddle of how to tailor the music in a bar, restaurant, gym, bowling alley, or wherever to suit the taste of the crowd. From posters that skip songs when you throw stuff at them to facial-recognition hacks that find you on Facebook and use your…
As a photographer and design lover, I find it hard to exclude an app with a nice-looking interface, so I’ve included an app we overlooked last year in this week’s selection of new music apps. It may not be new, but this recent Apple’s Staff Favorite is really worth a look. This week also brings new…
First, it must be said: Many people already DJ with an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. They works just fine in many settings, even without using fancy DJ apps that enable cross-fading, EQ, headphone cuing, and other mainstays of the DJ trade. After all, when most people talk about DJing at a bar or party,…
The creators of the new group-listening app budtobud say they had a long conversation with Turntable.fm creator Billy Chasen at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 (see update), when they were working on a social DJ music player. At the time, he was still working on his old company, stickybits. The following spring, Chasen launched Turntable.fm, the music-tech darling of…
When the MP3 revolution hit its stride, the coolest thing about it was how much control we were given over our music. Weightless files and tiny players let you carry your entire library around with you, all the time. Anything you wanted to listen to — so long as you had already hunted it down…
