SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — We already know the vinyl revival is not going away. Now, there’s a handy new app looking to help record shoppers (not to mention CD holdouts) listen to albums before buying them, as well as sharing their prospective purchases with friends a la Instagram. Enter: InstaSound. This iOS app (with a companion…
AUSTIN, TEXAS — This is the second part of our exclusive SXSW interview with Peter Blom, co-founder of the popular SpotON Radio app for iOS, which turns Spotify into an artist-based radio service. See the first part here. Eliot Van Buskirk, Evolver.fm: Do you think it hurts you that because Spotify’s mobile app lacks a free trial,…
Much has been made of our supposedly decreasing attention spans when it comes to music. The proliferation of MP3s, peer-to-peer file sharing, and streaming services like Spotify and Rdio have put ridiculous amounts of content at our fingertips and in our pockets. Some argue that all this music weakens our ability to appreciate it. Why focus…
Depending on when you tuned in to the 54th Grammy awards Sunday night, you may have seen one of four shows: One was stately and appropriately low-key in its remembrance of the late Whitney Houston; another was unabashedly celebratory; a third was full of the usual awkwardly-forced collaborations; and the fourth one had way too much…
Contrary to form, let’s talk about something old-fashioned: music boxes — specifically, the kind that are attached to snow globes. You may still have one of these holiday-themed tchotchkes on display at your house, although it might take on a forlorn air now that Festivus is over. You know the drill: flip them over, wind them up, and enjoy…
Are you a recovering Guitar Hero addict? Or if not, do you inexplicably love watching colorful circles slide down virtual strings so you can “strum” (or in this case, tap) away at your “guitar?” TubeHero, which has already enjoyed tremendous success as a Facebook app, brings everyone’s favorite wannabe-rockstar game to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch…
Audio on the internet is mainly about music, because people generally want to see video or read descriptive text about events such as #OccupyWallStreet. SoundCloud, which first grew popular as a way for musicians (especially DJs) to share music with each other, hopes to make inroads in non-musical areas too, and has already done…
Ignore, if you can, the cheesiness of the above video, which was clearly made in Los Angeles judging by the LA-ness of its people. Focus instead on what this DimSong app is doing: altering the way music sounds based on the iPhone’s accelerometer, touchscreen, and camera. Created by VenLabs (based, of course, in Venice, California),…
Turntable.fm, the popular web app that allows users to DJ their favorite songs in group-listening rooms, is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch as we expected. The service, unveiled earlier this year, has very quickly become something of a phenomenon. The idea is simple enough: five DJs pick tunes (either from Turntable.fm’s substantial…
Listening to electronic musicians talk about their favorite methods for producing music can be boring, intimidating, or worse to outsiders — and to some insiders as well. I’ve sat through gearheads waxing poetic on everything from the perfect software for dubstep wobbles to how no digital compressor will ever sound as good as a classic LA-2A,…
Remember JezzBall? Part of a then-ubiquitous Microsoft Entertainment Pack of the early ’90s, that simple game featured balls ricocheting around a 2D environment. If you’re in your twenties and of a certain general persuasion, it just might have been an integral part of your childhood (play it online). Why are we mentioning this? Balls ($1),…
First, a story, by way of explanation: A few years ago at a Boredoms show, I watched, rapt, as singer and multi-instrumentalist Yamantaka Eye wielded two glowing orbs. I still don’t know exactly how it happened, but as he moved those two spheres around in his hands, noises emerged that seemed controlled by the positions…
If the Pulsate iOS app to the right looks familiar, perhaps you’ve encountered one of its predecessors, ToneMatrix, which attracted lots of attention by pairing a simple musical idea with a minimal, elegant interface. ToneMatrix was created by Andre Michelle, who works at Audiotool, an online digital audio workstation (DAW) with heaps of virtual synthesizers and effects pedals….
Upon opening the Bebot iPhone app, you’re greeted by a smiling, cute-as-can-be cartoon robot in a snazzy tux and red bowtie. He looks somewhat like the spawn of Rosie the Jetsons’ maid and the Pillsbury Doughboy, but instead of that trademark “Doughboy” chuckle, Normalware’s Bebot Robot Synth ($2) serves up electronic bleeps and bloops based on your finger…
Apparently, the legendary Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed knows a lot of people, their names keep changing, and they have multiple numbers. Oh, and he has an iPhone, but struggles to read the text on its screen. How do we know this? Because of Lou Zoom, an iPhone app that makes it easier to see and interact…
