The iPhone as a Music Enabler?

Ok... so I'm totally jazzed about my new iPhone. Admittedly, it was a challenge to switch as a major Blackberry user for years... and while using the tactile typing interface of the Berry can't be matched by the iPhone, the world of apps that Apple has enabled with the iPhone is truly spectacular.

As a musician, I now have a suite of music-related apps at my finger tips. Those who know me know that I LOVE Pandora - the automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. I've written about artists that I've discovered simply because Pandora introduced them to me - and now I have a Pandora app that streams musical artists directly to my phone so I can listen when I work out, or when I'm driving in the car... it's awesome.

Another app, Concerts, serves up list of artists that are performing in venues that are in your local area. You can use it when you travel too - just reset your local area to wherever you are and you'll get a listing of artists playing near that location. Better yet, there's a feature that looks at your music collection in your iPod - and then notifies you when artists listed in your musical collection have scheduled concert dates in your area. How cool is that?? How many times have you missed a show of an artist you really like because you weren't regularly checking tour schedules...?Now you are notified in advance when the performers you like most are coming to a venue near you!

There are others... like Concert Vault, which allows you to search a database of live concert recordings and stream them to your phone; Shazam, an app that will identify a song title and artist for you when you hear it but don't know who the artist is (you just hold your phone up and let it "listen" to t a few bars and then it pings you with the info about the song); and don't even get me started on the apps for guitar players. More on that in another post.

When I made the switch, I never thought about how this thing would enable me to consume more music, but it has and I love it!!