The recently launched app is quickly gaining global recognition as the first social platform to unite music fans, catalog their reviews, and inspire conversations.
There is something for almost everyone on the internet. Movie fans can turn to IMDB for facts about films, and then to Letterboxd to share catalog their reviews. Fashion and interior design enthusiasts can use Pinterest to build their closets and plan for their future home. Sports fans have many hubs for cultivating community through fantasy team programming.
Music fans are the exception. While listeners generally use the same platforms to enjoy music, not a single streaming company has mastered the social aspect of audio consumption. For example, you can’t rate and catalog your Spotify or Apple Music listening without going somewhere else first (Twitter, a blog, etc.).
That’s where Musicboard comes in. The app, which recently released the third version of its platform, empowers music fans to catalog their listening experiences, and share their opinions with their fellow listeners. The platform is not the first to attempt making music social in a meaningful way, but it is the first to find serious traction with its concept.
Here’s how it works:
Musicboard users log and review the music they enjoy. User can also browse ratings and reviews from around the world, as well as share their reviews with friends and family. Musicboard also makes it easy to compile your favorite and most hated releases into collection that can be shared with anyone interested.
MusicBoard is constantly releasing new updates to its platform. In fact, version 3.1 was released on May 27, 2020. You can download and begin logging your listening experiences by visiting the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
This is the latest post in our ongoing collaboration with SonicBids. Enjoy.
Don’t go wasting your hard-earned dollars on apps that are either too complicated to be helpful or too glitchy to function. We want to help you discover truly great musician apps that can enhance the way you write and perform! Below, you’ll find a list of six apps under $10 that are worth the investment.
1. Ultimate Guitar Tabs by Ultimate Guitar USA LLC
Voted by Google as one of the best apps of 2014, this app allows you to learn your favorite songs on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and ukulele. It offers over 800,000 tabs and free daily updates with recent hit songs. We love that this app features a dedicated left-handed mode, brilliant search capabilities, a precision metronome, and auto-scrolling chords that follow as you play. We did notice some lagging in comparison to the website, and we’d love to see the ability to transponse, but overall, this is a must-have for pop-music-loving guitarists.
Price: $2.99
Where to get it: For Apple devices with iOS 5+ here; for Android devices here.
2. AirMusic by Plutinosoft
AirMusic allows you to access and stream your iPhone/iPad music library over Wi-Fi from Xbox, Chromecast, Windows Media Player, Roku, or any compatible DLNA device. At $2.99, it’s the cost-effective alternative to buying an AppleTV for AirPlay across all your devices or home entertainment system. We loved the iCloud integration before Apple Music was released, but it’s a bit complicated with the caveat that playable songs must first be downloaded and synced with your device prior to streaming. As many users have noted, our only wish for the developers is to do away with the 10-minute timeout that occurs when music is running in the background. If that were extended, this app would be flawless!
Price: $2.99
Where to get it: For iPhone/iPad here; for Android here.
3. Beatwave 2.0 by collect3
Reviewed by the Huffington Post, this app is a DJ’s best friend and electronic artist’s sidekick. We love that anyone can create compelling material with this one-of-a-kind app. Beatwave lets you create live, visual performances with a slew of on-board sounds simply by tapping. This update allows you to be social and share your creations with Twitter, Facebook, or SoundCloud. The included audio effects are definitely useful, but we’d appreciate an expansion of capability here.
Price: Free initial download (with full pro features unlocked in app for $9.99)
This app seamlessly transforms your whistles and hums into full-length tunes. For musicians who struggle with transcription or notation, this works wonders. In addition to the vocal input, Chordana Composer also has a keyboard interface, notation option, and MIDI compatibility, so once the song is complete, the score can be fine-tuned. Using Chordana is by far the easiest way we’ve found to collaborate with other writers, especially for lyrics or topline developments. Of course, we’d love a larger sound bank to include more realistic-sounding synths and acoustic emulations, but this app is a great launchpad for hit making.
Price: $4.99
Where to get it: For Apple devices equipped with iOS 8 or higher here.
5. Poweramp by Max MP
Poweramp has been the number-one paid music player in the Google Play store for four years. It’s the most powerful and customizable music player available on the Android OS. Features like gapless play, an unmatched equalization system, great crossfade, improved battery life, and support for most popular music file formats make this app unbeatable. Check out an extensive review of all the app’s features here. We’re begging the developers to bring this to the Apple universe!
This virtual tuner is an all-inclusive app designed for the professional musician to the beginning player. Whether you play a brass, woodwind, or string instrument, this application will help improve your skills. Sonosaurus surpassed all the other tuning apps we encountered by adding an in-depth analysis page that includes frequency and harmonic energy plots, along with a scrolling waveform display that trains musicians to visualize sounds. The customizations available (like adjustable reference pitches other than A=440Hz) and MIDI controller support make this app totally worthwhile for the traveling musician.
Price: $1.99 for Android (there’s a 50 percent off sale happening as of this writing); $3.99 for iOS.
Where to get it: For Android 4.3+ here; for Apple devices with iOS 5+ here.
Caleb Hsu is an independent vocal producer and freelance recording engineer based in Los Angeles. As a classically trained pianist and composer, he enjoys writing music technology features that combine his psychology background with current industry trends.
