Yes, the life of a Music snob on the go can be rough. Lucky for me, we’re living in the Age of Aquarius for music discovery. Here are the absolute best apps I myself use to find new tracks and artists that match my exquisite taste.
Apps in this list: 8Tracks, NextSong - Music Notifications, Shazam, Sonarflow, Hype Machine, SomaFM, and WhoSampled.
Just bite the bullet already: Why You Should Get Spotify Premium
8Tracks: 9.0/10
I use 8Tracks like some people use oxygen. You can harp on about algorithms and zero-input UI music players, but I’m all about human curated playlists. Each and every user - including you, dear reader - can upload and share playlists for every taste, mood, and unique situation.
You can search 8Tracks by genre or artist, sure, but the coolest way is by keyword. Looking for some Japanese night jazz? Perhaps a bit of softly insulated summer days? Or is it time again for a cross species human-animal orgy? 8Tracks has got your back.
Great intuitive navigation and clean high-quality streaming. As underground as you wanna be - there’s plenty of pop dribble on here too.
Don’t forget to check out the video review I did of 8Tracks on YouTube.
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
NextSong - Music Notifications: 8.8/10
NextSong is an essential little app exclusively for Android. It performs just one function - a pop-up notification at the top of your screen every time a new song plays on compatible streaming music apps. It works with Spotify, 8Tracks, Pandora, Google Play Music, and probably plenty more that I haven’t tested myself.
It’s exactly what you need: no more switching back and forth between what you’re doing, and your preferred music app, to find out what’s playing now. Lightweight and utterly functional.
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
Shazam: 8.0/10
Okay, Shazam isn’t exactly a secret - but you don’t necessarily need underground apps to discover underground music. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple years, Shazam listens to whatever’s playing in the background - on the radio, on TV, in a bar, in the mall, wherever - records a snippet, checks it against its database, and tells you what the song is. It’s that simple, and it works better and better each year.
Interestingly, so many people use Shazam that it can now start to predict music trends before they happen based on how many people are looking up songs in certain areas. I mean, I’m sure you would never look up anything so mainstream, but the data is way cool.
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
Radiohead fan? Check out GIFs of Thom Yorke's bizarre animations in their app, Polyfauna
Sonarflow: 8.8/10
Sonarflow is casual music browsing by navigating nebulae of genres and related artists. Sounds scientific, plays out artistic. Look up a starting point that you dig, then pinch and swipe to explore the surrounding area of similar grooves. It’s actually beautifully designed, and super easy to lose yourself on a streak of discovering music you’ll immediately love.
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
Hype Machine: 8.7/10
If you’re a music snob with any cred to your name at all, you already know and love Hype Machine. Don’t waste time attempting to keep track of the pastiche of cutting-edge music blogs out there yourself. Just keep an eye on Hype Machine, which brings you the best of over 800 of ‘em.
The most talked-about tracks are at the top of the list - but rest assured, there’s no Maroon 5 here in Hipsterlandia. Read the best posts, share great finds with friends, and scour your customized feed for hidden gold. Automatic scrobbling to your last.fm account is included, so the world can know what great taste you’ve got, champ.
The app runs smooth like butter. No free version, unfortunately, but if you love the website, the small investment is unquestionably worth it.
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
SomaFM: 9.0/10
I’m telling you, you won’t know how great curated streaming radio can be until you’ve used SomaFM to accompany a workday or a big project. Get yourself to their website first. Select from over 20 streaming radio stations, including such greats as Groove Salad (downtempo/ambient beats), Secret Agent (“The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life”), and Indie Pop Rocks! (hot new indie artists, unsigned groups, and a whole heap of classic favorites). Sit back. Groove, baby.
Once you find yourself swathed in never-ending musical atmospheres without once having to pick a track yourself, you’re just gonna have to get the app. Take super-high quality streaming stations with you wherever you go.
SomaFM is totally commercial-free and listener-supported.
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
WhoSampled: 8.1/10
Dig deeper into the music around you with WhoSampled, a bustling community of music freaks obsessed with finding out the original source of borrowed sounds. A huge percentage of today’s top hits sample their catchiest riffs directly from obscure tracks of yore; this app helps you find out where that groove came from.
The app’s organized like a wiki, including samples, covers, and remixes, all searchable by both track and artist. YouTube links let you listen to the original source in full. Every track page includes a space to chat with other music lovers (it’s a little disorganized, actually - I think it’s just ported directly from the online message boards, so there’s room for improvement here).
Find out the samples that built over 270,000 tracks by 95,000 artists - and post new connections yourself!
Full review at Appszoom
Download from Google Play
What’s your preferred music discovery tool? Wanna follow me on 8Tracks? The Comments: they’re all yours.
7 Music Discovery Apps For Android Music Snobs
This post first appeared on Appszoom Magazine: Android & IOS News, Tips & App, please read the originial post: here
