These new and developing apps allow fans to scan their libraries, share their tastes, and report their "musical moments" for other fans to see. However, the article also reports that sometimes a product developed first by music fanatics and then applied to the mainstream can become successful. The article profiles Songkick's new tour tracking app which surpassed 100,000 downloads within the first two weeks along with Shazam and the newer app, Soundtracking--both being used to identify artists and track songs.
It occurred to me while reading that, of course, I fall into the music fanatic category (hell, I am writing a music blog reporting on relatively unknown artists as well as new and developing apps). And yet, which apps do I end up using? Mired in a music technology mess, with developers just looking for the next thing, even as a fanatic I often find that I use Pandora, Spotify and even peruse iTunes singles of the week to easily consume music. This leads me to believe that perhaps these programs are universally popular because they cover so much music and can function the same way for a lover of Top 40 Hits, and a hipster looking to listen to Pitchfork's top staff picks.
But where do apps start? How do the fanatics that develop them distance themselves from the fringe to understand what mainstream consumers want? While the digital realm is new and schools like NYU have even developed a Music Business Major with a concentration in Music Technology, the wave of the future will be the development of easy-to-use yet all-encompassing programs that can appeal to a wide variety of consumers.
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