Trent walton
October 30 2009 @ 04:43PM #
Slick marketing or not, I hope more record labels go the same route. Obviously, the “freemium” model works & what a great way to meet music fans where they are… staring into their iphones!
Elliot Jay Stocks Home
Ghostly Discovery October 30 2009
17 responses
There’s a growing list of iPhone apps that I enjoy, but there’s one I downloaded this week that I absolutely love: the rather excellent (and free) Ghostly Discovery from Ghostly International.
For those who don’t know (or can’t be bothered to click on the link), Ghostly are an eclectic independent record label based in Ann Arbor. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me raving about the fantastic music they put out on many an occasion. Artists like Kiln and School of Seven Bells are a huge influence on my own music, and most of you will probably be aware of Tycho, the musical alter-ego of designer Scott Hansen / ISO50 (and if you’re not, then shame on you — click that link!).
Anyway, the iPhone app… Ghostly Discovery is essentially a way of unearthing the many gems in Ghostly’s catalogue. You don’t search for songs or browse artists and albums — as per the usual song-finding paradigm — but instead discover music based on your mood and the style of the music you’re after. While setting the mood is pretty innovative (sliding a colour wheel where colours represent moods like ‘frenetic’, ‘laid back’, ‘introspective’, and ‘aggressive’), it’s the styles selector I really love; you have two sliders (think mixing desk faders): one to slide between ‘digital’ and ‘organic’, and another to slide between ‘faster’ and ‘slower’. With everything all set, you hit ‘discover’ and a playlist is generated to suit your input. Hooray — new music!
Once you’re into the playlist screen you’re given a few details about the track and some decent-sized album art. Clicking on the ‘menu’ button beneath the artwork then presents some extra options, like being able to buy the track directly from iTunes or read the artist’s bio. You can save tracks to your favourites and the previous / next controls shoot you to completely different artists and albums, so there’s a nice sense of random discovery maintained throughout the entire experience.
Finding new music can be a distracting task during the day so I’ve found myself firing up the app while cleaning my teeth or getting ready in the morning, walking around with some interesting sounds coming out of my pocket before settling down for a day’s work. And by adding tracks to my favourites, it’s a nice reminder to visit the Ghostly Store later in the day and make a purchase (I’m not really a per-track kind of guy — it’s either the whole album or nothing).
Ghostly’s catalogue covers a relatively wide range of genres to appease most eclectic tastes, but even if you’re not a fan of the music, the UI on this app should appeal. It looks good, it keeps things very simple, and hats off to them for ditching the usual way of finding music. If you want to search for something specific, this app will frustrate you, because it’s not about that: it’s about finding something you would never have known to search for.
This video demonstrates things quite nicely:
Of course, I won’t pretend to be blind to the fact that this is an exercise in intelligent marketing: from a commercial point of view, this has huge potential to drive sales for Ghostly, especially from those who might not usually go out of their way to find new music. But hey, I can live with that. Ghostly is a label with a lot of integrity and a lot of great music, and if they can make some money and turn on some new fans, then good for them. Personally I think we live in an age where discovering genuinely interesting new music can be hard when so much crap is shoved into our ears, so it’s nice to see a company trying to counteract that with a fun tool like this.
Has anyone else used the app? What do you think? Do you have any other eclectic app suggestions?
(By the way, although this post is full of praise for Ghostly and their app, I promise I wasn’t paid to write it. I’ve decided to start writing more about apps than I previously have done so far.)
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17 responses
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Nick Hamze
October 30 2009 @ 05:48PM #
I am always looking for more good music, thanks I will check it out
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Ian Tearle
October 30 2009 @ 05:50PM #
Looks like a great little app, and I would sooo like to try it out, (if only I had an iPhone).
Nice new marketing tool though. I agree with Trent ^ perhaps other record labels should do the same, or does this open a discussion for a more generic application in this way?
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Kieran Klaassen
October 30 2009 @ 06:08PM #
Just downloaded it! Thanks for sharing, interesting cincept!
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Paul Ledbrook
October 30 2009 @ 06:59PM #
Great app, had it for a while now, tend to plug the iphone/Ghostly into the stereo to avoid having to choose music when I’m hard at work. Been a big fan of Tycho for a while (can’t wait for the new album), also enjoying some of the Lusine tunes. When I don’t know what music I feel like listening to I revert to internet radio stations, my hit of the moment is ’fail’s audio workshop v4.0’. The iphone app ‘RadioBox’ gives you access to most internet radio and the player has a pretty slick interface.
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Aziz Light
October 30 2009 @ 10:16PM #
Amazing! Thank you! Now I plug my speakers to my iPhone instead of my laptop lol. I wish there was some network in the subway to that I could listen to it there, but I can never get 3G connectivity underground…
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Brian Crumley
October 31 2009 @ 12:10AM #
I always love checking out new music, but even more than that I love seeing innovative ways of selecting and presenting the subject matter. Thanks for sharing!
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maria
November 06 2009 @ 03:10AM #
Thanks, just downloaded it. Plan to listen on my bike ride home from work. If you like good music like this I’d check out thecurrent.org it’s a minnesota public radio station. I’m hooked and a member!
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Oscar Avellaneda
November 11 2009 @ 06:31AM #
Elliot i just watched your two part tutorial for building a portfolio site.
Thank you.I have admired your work for a good while since i started learning css.
You have re ignited my desire to go deeper.word on Ghostly Discovery. Love it.
O
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