Discover Discovr

While this is a period of peculiar uncertainty for iPad users (to buy or not to buy, to upgrade or not to upgrade, etc.), we can all find the same certainty in the reliability of Apps available for us. The world of iPhones and iPads will change and consumers will debate ad infinitum the pros and cons of new devices, but we will always have a mind boggling number of Apps to explore.

Discovr aims to enhance your musical experience on the iPad by exposing you to new artists based on your present preferences. While an App like Pandora analyzes the musical characteristics of a song, Discovr operates more traditionally. When you in put a band name into the home screen, Discovr then creates a web of connections: bands that are similar in genre, time, and place. Discovr is like having your own music snob who creates a list of all the bands that you would like but without having to deal with his condescension after he discovers that you don’t own all of The Smiths Limited Edition Japan releases.

So let’s take music snob favorite The Smiths (full disclosure: I wrote my college admissions essay bout hearing The Smiths for the first time). After I type The Smtihs in, The Smiths appear in the center with six attaching circles that include New Order, Joy Division, The Stone Roses, and some others. While each search will not be immaculate, this initial glance introduces relatively similar artists.

Like so many other Apps that have helped to raise the iPad’s profile as not only a replacement for computers but also as a new kind of computing, Discovr allows incredible manipulability. After the surrounding circles appear, you can move them around, shift their order, and just enjoy the sheer joy of the experience.

If you double-tap on one of the circles, you move to that artist’s individual page. Here, you can read a brief biography, sample some of the songs, view youtube videos, and peruse blogs and reviews that mention this band (aspects of this are similar to The History of Jazz App). Occasionally, some strange results are produced by nature of Discovr’s search engine. For example, the band Why?’s youtube videos were all songs that included the word “why” in the title. But this happened somewhat rarely in all of my searches.

Discovr’s most innovative feature is when you single-tap on one of the circles. Based on my intiial search, I then tapped on Joy Division which opened up a whole new set of musical associations. What is amazing is that you can continuously tap on bands until you screen is full of bands connected to each other. As you tap more times and make more bands appear, more connections are establishes. In theory, you could create a web that connected every single band available on Discovr.

When your screen is too cluttered, you can simply shake your iPad and then have a pleasantly clean slate. If you are having trouble of thinking where to start, Discvor’s home page has images of the artists that you have on your iPad—so you can always start in familiar territory. Overall, Discovr allows you an innovative way of discovering music connected to what you already love.

Expand your musical horizons by downloading Discovr for only $2.99