The app goes live tomorrow in both the App store and Play Store. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the overall concept and on the product itself (more importantly) when it goes live.
Would be good if this information was on the website. I was trying to find out if it was available for android but couldn't find anything about it (or the app in general). That aside though, this looks really great.
Hi dsyph3r - the app will be available on Android too. I'll follow up with the relevant link tomorrow when it's live. Looking forward to seeing you on on the app!
This may sound foolish, but what actually is it? I don't have the time to watch the videos, and I'm on my phone and there's no text only 'about' to be read. From what I gather, it's a music social network that puts you in contact with people nearby with the same music taste? It's like scrobbling on last.fm, but with something special than 'Bono predicted' and Woz liked? After his comments voicing support for the Great Firewall as a method of preventing music piracy, I don't really pay much attention to Bono.
Hey shavingspiders - no problem, happy to elaborate. In short, it's a way to find out what music is being listened to and where in real-time. It's not a 'connecting' tool per se because we keep the location info anonymized and aggregated (so you can see top played charts by genre/time in different locations). As mentioned above, there is also the social element so that you have an open graph of music listens amongst your network.
I take your point about Bono. Disclaimer though: I'm Irish so may be a little biased!
I can't say anything about the app as I've not used it. However, the concept is (in my opinion) flawed for a large number of potential users - the music my friends listen to is absolutely no indication of what I might like.
I'm too old. I've spent the past 30 or so years (I'm 36) developing a taste of my own. I no longer meet or socialise with people around music (eg go to gigs with friends). Similarly, my "favourites" are people I admire and respect for things entirely different to what their music tastes are. Most of the new music I find these days is based on what I listen to already or in curated theme-based playlists from sites like http://ShareMyPlaylists.com. Automating something like music discovery from a social graph is skewed (in my opinion again, and based on instinct rather than science) towards young people who still socialise in what I would call "taste networks" - groups based around shared tastes. Older people don't do that in my experience.
Good luck with it though. There's still a giant market out there. And I'll still try it just to see what it thinks I might enjoy.
I agree. It's very difficult to estimate someones taste.
For example I like a hardcore band but only because they are different from all other hardcore bands. Most programs will estimate I like hardcore but that isn't the case.
I'm not sure but I think I like the music I like because they have this special 'mood' that fits me. And the lyrics are also important for me. Question is: how can we turn this into meta data suitable for matching.
Interesting question ohwp. I do think that recommendation systems are only going to get better. Lyrics and sentimental analysis are definitely going to play a part in that.
One of the main reasons we built Soundwave though was to take a more human based approach to music discovery. Personally, I'd take three friends who have similar hardcore tastes than me over any system (currently built) because I too was annoyed at how poor the recommendations were. Our app will hopefully reduce the friction in finding those people with similar tastes.
Thanks for the comment onion2k - fair point. We definitely have a target market in mind with the app which is a younger demographic whose musical taste may not be completely developed just yet. Having said that, I'm sure you have a couple of friends you still turn to for tips on the latest and greatest?! As for favorites, again I'd agree with you but we've had a huge amount of interest from people trying to discover what sports stars are listening to before a big game etc. Social graphs are so subjective that this really is a binary type of idea. Some people will love it and use it a lot (hopefully), others will use other channels for discovery and stay away from the social curation side.
Thanks for raising this point so amicably though - I'll be sure to update the post with the links when we're live!
Actually, the social graph is directed - like, say, twitter. So I can explicitly follow people I know have a penchant for picking up decent new music first.
This might be the "muso" in your real-world social group or it might be a respected journalist outside that group. It might even be Bono himself.
I'm in a similar age bracket, and I've had "so what are you listening to these days" conversations with friends. I find them quite rewarding, even though my broader tastes have settled down.
I'm biased (obviously) but I think we've built something along the lines of those conversations - and more (check-out maps!).
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 38.3 ms ] threadI take your point about Bono. Disclaimer though: I'm Irish so may be a little biased!
I'm too old. I've spent the past 30 or so years (I'm 36) developing a taste of my own. I no longer meet or socialise with people around music (eg go to gigs with friends). Similarly, my "favourites" are people I admire and respect for things entirely different to what their music tastes are. Most of the new music I find these days is based on what I listen to already or in curated theme-based playlists from sites like http://ShareMyPlaylists.com. Automating something like music discovery from a social graph is skewed (in my opinion again, and based on instinct rather than science) towards young people who still socialise in what I would call "taste networks" - groups based around shared tastes. Older people don't do that in my experience.
Good luck with it though. There's still a giant market out there. And I'll still try it just to see what it thinks I might enjoy.
For example I like a hardcore band but only because they are different from all other hardcore bands. Most programs will estimate I like hardcore but that isn't the case.
I'm not sure but I think I like the music I like because they have this special 'mood' that fits me. And the lyrics are also important for me. Question is: how can we turn this into meta data suitable for matching.
One of the main reasons we built Soundwave though was to take a more human based approach to music discovery. Personally, I'd take three friends who have similar hardcore tastes than me over any system (currently built) because I too was annoyed at how poor the recommendations were. Our app will hopefully reduce the friction in finding those people with similar tastes.
Thanks for raising this point so amicably though - I'll be sure to update the post with the links when we're live!
This might be the "muso" in your real-world social group or it might be a respected journalist outside that group. It might even be Bono himself.
I'm in a similar age bracket, and I've had "so what are you listening to these days" conversations with friends. I find them quite rewarding, even though my broader tastes have settled down.
I'm biased (obviously) but I think we've built something along the lines of those conversations - and more (check-out maps!).