Months after its original release, I’m still using Aweditorium as my primary “music discovery tool” on the iPad. The app is nothing but a grid containing interesting independent artists and bands the Aweditorium developers think you should check out. You can listen to songs directly from the app, send them to an external speaker with AirPlay, run the app in the background or stay in there and check out bios, interviews and lyrics while you’re listening. It makes for a great way to discover new music when you have some free time to dedicate to music. But in Aweditorium, you won’t see your favorite artists coming up every once in a while, as the app is entirely based on music you’ve likely never heard of before. That’s where (I think) Australian music start-up Jammbox got inspired to develop Discovr for iPad.
Discovr helps you discover new music you might like by connecting related artists to the ones you already know. This way, you know you’re going to listen to something that might fit your tastes in music. Plus, it all looks very cool and meant for the iPad’s large screen. On first launch, the app displays nothing but a search box. Write down the name of a band you like, wait a few seconds and boom, a map comes up on screen. This map features other artists and bands connected by Jammbox’s system to the one you initially wrote. As you tap on a related artist, the map expands to reveal further artists and bands related to that one. You can go on doing this for as much as you like, and the map will grow bigger.
You can double-tap on artists to get to a new screen that will let you watch Youtube videos with interviews and live performances, check on the latest headlines from music blogs and read reviews for an artist’s albums. Discovr allows you to find new music and collect information at the same time – too bad there’s no way to listen to songs from the app like in Aweditorium. I would love to be able to browse the map, listen to a song and, say, jump to iTunes to check out more songs. Right now, the app doesn’t offer this kind of iTunes integration.
Discovr is available at $2.99 in the App Store. It’s got support for Twitter and Facebook and also lets you share items via email. If you’re into music discovery as much as I am, give it a try.
