App Review: Groovebug for iPad

For far too long, hipsters have been an unsightly stain on the fabric of America.  These self-righteous shitbags perceive themselves to be intellectually superior to the masses, taking pleasure in rejecting mainstream culture while mocking the common man for his ostensibly pedestrian preferences–especially when it comes to music.   These pretentious piranha will lure you into a seemingly innocuous discussion about his or her favorite bands, converse until a weakness is exposed, and then strike with self-satisfied sass, dropping lines such as “you probably never heard of them” or “ugh…they’re too mainstream” on your candy ass.

For far too long, hipsters have been an unsightly stain on the fabric of America.

So what’s a man to do?  How does one find the time to stay on top of the latest indie artists breaking onto the scene? After all, you do have a job and make meaningful contributions to society; you don’t have the luxury of spending every waking hour listening to obscure records, crushing PBRs and grooming your ironic mustache.

Thankfully, the fine folks at GrooveBug have taken matters into their own hands and leveled the playing field with GrooveBug, the music discovery app for iPad. Upon launch, Groovebug scan’s your iPad’s music library and creates a personalized interactive magazine based on your musical preferences.

 Simply spinning the record allow the user to scroll through a number of great recommendations.

On the the Home screen, you’ll find Groovebug’s Featured Content.  This section is comprised of panels representing genres that closely match those found in your library.  Each collection’s page contains relevant news, tour schedules, Facebook pages and twitter links to artists that would fit that particular genre.  A sidebar on each collection page displays a list of artists that exemplify that genre. Tapping on any given artist will take you to that artist’s bio page. Swiping left or right will let you cycle through an aggregation of YouTube videos, blog excerpts, iTunes previews (with the option to buy), and, by far my favorite feature, Similar Artists.The Similar Artists page displays, well, artists similar to the one you’ve chosen, with little icons representing each artist superimposed on top of a 45″ record.  Simply spinning the record allow the user to scroll through a number of great recommendations.

Think iTunes Genius meets Groovebug’s take on overflow.  Not only is the presentation great, but the recommendations are spot on, too.  Like Bon Iver?  Groovebug thinks you might like The Tallest Man on Earth, Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens.  A fan of Sigur Ros?  Check out Explosions In the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai.  In my time using the program, I did not come across any irrelevant, off-the-wall suggestions as I’ve occasionally experienced with iTunes’ Genius feature.

This is a must-have app for any musicophile with an iPad.

I’ve been using Groovebug for the past week or so, and have found it to be an impressive, polished application with an equally impressive price (free). This is a must-have app for any musicophile with an iPad.

QUICK HITS:

• Controls: Simple, intuitive controls.
• Time Suck: You could get lost for hours consuming all the info Grooveshark puts at your fingertips
• Replay/Addiction Value: Very high.
• Polish: Clean user interface, no crashes experienced thus far.