There hasn’t really been a good, all-encompassing music app for people to check out what their friends have been listening to. Sure, many users sometimes post songs they love on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but those updates often get lost in a stream of selfies, cat photos and pop culture jokes. Cymbal, a new iOS-only app many have called the “Instagram for music,” may be what hardcore music fans have been waiting for. And it’s officially now my new number one for music discovery.
Cymbal started May 1 as the creation of Tufts University undergraduates Amadou Crookes, Gabe Jacobs and Mario Gomez-Hall. (You may recognize Jacobs for the once-popular prank app he developed at 14 called “Fart for Free,” which sent goofy flatulence sounds to friends.) Since Cymbal’s launch, it’s accumulated well over 17,000 downloads and in July boasted a valuation of more than $6 million. While representatives for the company are keeping the updated numbers internal, we can assume it’s only gone up as favorable press and social media posts about the app have steadily come in.
What separates Cymbal from other music discovery apps like Spotify and Apple Music is that it bills itself as “music discovery powered by friends, not algorithms.” In many ways, it’s right. Once you download the app, your feed is an evolving stream of songs handpicked by your friends as well as the labels, “influencers” and artists whose tastes you trust most. It’s the perfect app for people who feel like they’re in a musical rut and are looking for the next best thing to check out. (Full disclosure: this week, I was chosen as a “Profile of the Week” and verified as an “Influencer” on the service, which, while cool, has absolutely nothing to do with this article or its genesis.)
When you choose who to follow, Cymbal serves as a personalized feed by people you actually want to get recommendations from. Since I’ve joined, I’ve found so many awesome new songs posted by fellow writers, publicists I’ve worked with before, labels and lifelong friends. Just today, my friend Rafael had an awesome Cymbal of Seattle folk songwriter Julie Byrne’s “Prism Song,” and on Saturday, Alyssa, a publicist friend, introduced me to Minneapolis indie-pop weirdo J.E. Sunde’s “Hickory Point In The Fall.” For me, this is a better alternative than hearing Apple Music’s comprehensive but overwhelming curated playlists (which are compiled by the service’s editors) or Spotify’s impersonal but still good Discover Weekly series, a personalized mixtape made by an algorithm.
Using Cymbal is pretty straightforward. Just link it up to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, find friends and start posting. Since it links up to Spotify and Soundcloud, all you have to do search either platform’s database to choose your favorite song at that moment to make it your “Cymbal.” The app also shouldn’t be confused with Last.fm, a site which automatically “scrobbles” or posts what its users have been playing—the app doesn’t automate and makes listeners pick the song. Cymbal isn’t about providing a constant update of every song you’re listening to—that’d be obnoxious. Instead, it’s for saying, “Hey, this song is my jam right now.”
Because the song you pick plays through Spotify or Soundcloud’s respective players, artists still get royalties. (Tip: The best experience is for Spotify Premium subscribers, who can play the full song through the app, rather than free users who get just a 30-second snippet.) Once you’ve posted your song (you also can add a comment to each post), you can “heart” other users’ songs, search for what’s trending and other users to follow. Along with an Android version that soon will launch in beta testing, developers are also working on the option to embed songs to other platforms as well as adding a Web player for people who don’t only listen with their phones.
Though I’ll still peruse mp3 blogs and use Apple Music and Spotify to check out new things, I trust my friends and colleagues more than anything. Again: Cymbal is now my primary place for music discovery. By seeing who’s digging what, regardless of hype, press releases or chart sales, it’s the closest thing we have in the app age to handing over a record you love to a friend, and that’s pretty neat. Shameless plug: If you download the app, you can follow me there @JoshTerry.
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