The last day of SXSW marked an interesting shift from discussions about net neutrality and Foursquare to music applications in the mobile space.
The new music apps on display weren’t just about listening to or streaming music, but rather, boasted a heavy social element and location-based capabilities.
An app that really stood out was Roqbot, a music application integrated with location-based check-in service Gowalla.
With Roqbot, users can check into a particular venue like a bar or restaurant and vote on songs to help create the perfect playlist for that venue.
Of course, if you prefer to play DJ, you can purchase songs from the app to stream on the next on the playlist.
Roqbot adds another layer onto simple Gowalla check-ins, providing music lovers with a way to interact with the real world: a venue’s live playlist.
Playing upon the same social sharing element featured in Roqbot, SoundTracking and AOL’s “Play” offer similar social sharing features with their song identifying applications.
SoundTracking, for example, allows users to share and identify songs within the app or from an outside source. What’s also cool is the ability to “like”or “love” songs and integrate photos or messages when a song is shared.
AOL calls Play an “Instagram for music,” which lets users to listen to music and share it with others by sending a musical “postcard.”
SoundCloud, another other interesting application, integrated Foursquare and Songkick within its app so users can check-in to a particular place and share what’s playing. Songkick allows users add upcoming gigs within the SoundCloud app.
Clearly, listening to music on a mobile phone is no long just about streaming your favorite jams. Instead, it’s about sharing preferences with friends and noting the places you heard the songs.
With the integration of location and social features within apps, the music trend is clearly moving towards interaction with the real world rather than passive listening.
