App review: Embark on a Ghostly Discovery

Ghostly International’s app for the iPhone lets users discover music via mood

Technology trends and news by Ronny Kerr
September 11, 2009 | Comments (2)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/a89

16340

While some of the major record labels still shun technology, most likely to their disadvantage, many of the independent music labels have chosen to embrace the pervasiveness of the Internet and variety of Internet-connected devices to design applications that spread the word about cool new music.

One of those labelsGhostly Discovery is Ghostly International, whose iPhone app currently available on the App Store provides one of the slickest and most seamless experiences for listening to and discovering new music. And right now its app is probably the best way to get into the label's eclectic style of electronic, hip hop, and rock music.

Called Ghostly Discovery, the app’s main interface is incredibly simple, displaying a large ghost on the left (the same ghost acts as the label’s logo) for ‘mood’ and two ‘style’ dials on the right.

Sliding your finger around the circular rainbow changes the color of the ghost, affecting the kind of music you’re about to listen to. On the information page, the app explains its “Color Theory,” where red means “Aggressive,” sky blue means “Laid Back,” and so on.

The sliders on the right are immediately obvious to the user: one makes the song more digital or organic and the other adjusts the tempo of the music you’re looking for.

It’s so simple that you’ll probably get just the kind of music you want to hear on your first go at it. The first time I tried this app, I was having trouble falling asleep, so I made the ghGhostly Discovery2ost purple for “Introspective,” leaned towards “Digital,” and slid the rightmost knob to as “Slow” as possible.

The app sung out a playlist of 20 introspectively slow songs, perfect for resting my sleepy head.

Once the music is playing, you get full information about the track currently playing—album art, artist name, song name. In addition, users can favorite tracks, read full artist biographies, and—here’s the benefit to the record label—purchase songs.

Already, other independent record labels (Moodgadget, Stones Throw, others), having noticed the popularity of Ghostly Discovery on the App Store, are partnering with Ghostly International to get their music implemented into the app as well.

It's a fairly new app, so, while we don't yet have numbers from Ghostly telling how much in sales they're making from purchases through the app, it's clear that the clean interface and intuitive methodology will continue to be a hit with users. This is just the beginning of music innovation on devices like the iPhone.


Related news


Comments

Comment_gbg
Bill Immerso, on September 11, 2009

Great writing Ronny. My Iphone is accumulating tons of great apps per your investigations and recommendations


Ronny Kerr
Ronny Kerr, on September 12, 2009

Thanks, Bill. I hope you enjoy discovering some really great 'Ghostly' tunes.


blog comments powered by Disqus
Find your friends' startup new!
Vator is more valuable if you know who's here.
Discover who has a startup and help their success by following their progress!

Featured Stories

Latest company news bites on Vator

Vab Media - Andrew Broadbent (social media manager)
Charter a Private Jet to the 2012 British Golf Open http://bit.ly/xJuTNQ PrivateJets #Golf #BritishOpen #luxury #Travel
See more
MondoWindow - greg dicum (cofounder)
Technically Speaking.... MondoWindow CTO Tyler Freeman on how we use Node.js for screen scraping: http://blog.mondowindow.com/screen-scraping-with-nodejs
See more
Astrid was featured in a article: "TaskRabbit opens its API to app developers" about 16 hours ago
Companies organizing projects, hiring short-term labor flock to TaskRabbit API for infrastructure See more
VisionRacer is finalising a deal worth over US$1m for delivery starting in March..
See more
OnRelay - Marie Wold (President & CFO)
Exciting partnership opportunity with UK2 Group!
See more