MTV’s music discovery tool, the Music Meter, makes the jump today to the Apple platform with apps for the iPhone and iPad.The Music Meter launched in December as an online app for music discovery — but only for bands on the indie up and up, as opposed to the all-encompassing Lady Gaga.
MTV worked with music intelligence company The Echo Nest — which recently partnered with Island Def Jam — to develop an algorithm that combs through blogs, social media, video and more traditional metrics (like radio plays and sales) to determine which bands are getting the most attention each day.
Now, that same tool is available as a free app [iTunes link] on Apple devices (in addition to Android smartphones, and select Samsung connected TVs), where it seems much more natural than the in-browser iteration. Simply click on any artist on the chart (Toro Y Moi is currently trending at number one) for tracks, photos, tweets referencing that band, news and a bio.
Sadly, one can only listen to 30-second previews of tracks, courtesy of Rhapsody. This seems to be the case even if one is a Rhapsody subscriber, which seems a little silly — especially since MTV and the subscription services are currently offering a 60-day free trial. This seems like a missed opportunity, since we can easily see users of the app being turned on to Rhapsody while discovering new music, and subsequently signing up for the service when the trial ran out.
Still, the app is a clean-looking, slick way to discover music. One can also search for bands via the app, which we can see being useful when one is out and about or chatting with friends about new acts.
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