With a lot of people going to Spotify and Apple releasing it’s own music service and a redesigned music app, why would I develop a brand new music player app in 2015?
I love music and used an iPod touch as my primary music playing device for years before getting an iPhone or signing up for iTunes Match. I use iTunes Match for two reasons. Prior to only using my phone to listen to music it allowed me to switch between my work and personal laptops and have access to my music library without having to store my library on several computers. iTunes Match also gives me access to my entire library, around 1,000 albums, on my phone without having to manually sync the library between a laptop and my phone.
If you’re like me and listen to a lot of music on your iPhone or iPod touch, you’ve either stuck with Apple’s music app or switched to one of the alternative music player apps available in the app store today. I stuck with Apple’s music app for a while but there were several things I don’t like about it, even before Apple released a major update the its music app back in June.
I’ve tried several alternatives as well but didn’t find the right app for me. I think that’s because I primarily listen to albums, so I don’t really care for advanced playlisting, and also because my library is pretty big. With a large library browsing and search have to be super fast and easy otherwise it takes forever to find anything. Each alternative I tried obvioulsy had pros and cons, but none had it all in one neat package. In addition, a lot of apps — music or otherwise — tend not to evolve much once they are released, and with technology and users changing so fast, they go stale.
I am also always on the hunt for new music to add to my library (new to me that is), and for a long time I have used Amazon to find new stuff, by looking up music I like and browsing through the ‘customers who bought this item also bought’ section. It works, but it takes time and since I don’t typically buy content from Amazon, I would have to look up that same content in the iTunes store so I could buy it.
So I believe there is room for a new, fresh and smart music player app in the app store.
That’s not all though. I love to learn and create as much as I love good music, and my experience working with iOS, Objective-C, Cocoa Touch, etc. was limited to one simple app I developed and released a few short months ago. That first iOS project, Mubu, was a great learning exercise, but not nearly enough to make me credible as a professional iOS developer.
Heck, two iOS side projects is still not a whole lot, but I am getting closer and a lot more confident. And that is why I created Jam On.
More About Jam On
Don’t just play music. Put your music to work! Jam On is a music player that provides quick and easy access to all your music and helps you explore hidden corners of your library and discover new music based on what you play.
This paid app ($3.99) automatically keeps track of the music you play to recommend artists and albums both within and outside of your library and shows you new recommendations as you play different music.
Jam On lets you:
- Browse and search your library by artists, albums, songs, genres and playlists
- Pause and play the current track with a single tap from anywhere in the app
- Search any artist profile, preview tracks and buy content from the iTunes store
- Discover artists and their music based on your taste
- Keep recently added music easily accessible
- See recently and top played tracks, albums and artists
- Scrobble tracks to your Last.fm account in the background
Jam On ($3.99) is available for sale now in the App Store and you can learn more about it on my website. Here are a few screen shots, and you can find more on Instagram.
What now?
If you listen to a lot of your own music on your iPhone then Jam On is for you. Get it now from the App Store.
If you have the app I would love to hear from you and learn how you are using it, what you like about it and what you think stinks. You can contact me through the app, or email me at hello@jamon.fm.
Keep Calm and Jam On!
