The Best Music Apps You’re Not Using Enough

	Songza is hands down my favourite app. You can choose from a rather long list of activities, and have curated playlists served up to you based on what you’re doing. Songza has gone even further with the introduction of the ‘concierge’ feature. Concierge takes what it knows about your music preferences, notes whether or not you’re on a PC or a mobile device, and factors in the day and the time. From there, it gives you a list of five or six activities that you are probably in the midst of, and from there you can filter based on genre or mood, and choose a playlist.  This is a GREAT way to find NEW music.
	Richseam lets you discover music through the collaborations and connections of your favourite artists.Artists work with those who inspire them, bands share members, musicians produce and tour together. So type in your favourite artist and you can dig a little deeper into the world of music through those you already admire most. Richseam is a music discovery platform that’s built around artists’ connections and collaborations. It surfaces these connections and collaborations with a view towards helping you discover new artists and music – so if your favorite R&B band’s drummer also played guitar in a punk outfit, Richseam’s Web app will help surface this information.
	Shazam Identifies songs and TV shows quickly when you hold up your device and tap a button. From there, you can navigate to the song or video on YouTube or a 30-second iTunes preview.  Shazam also displays lyrics in time with the music, as well as artist info and concert/tour info. Facebook integration lets you see what friends are Shazam-ing and comment on their posts from within the app.
	Mixtaping.FM is a fun, simple Web app that does a pretty good job of re-imagining the mix-tape for the digital generation, taking the full analogy beyond that of the music itself, onto cover art and liner notes too. Create your own mix-tape and share with your friends.
	Songify is a creative app that turns speech into music.  Just speak into your Android device, and Songify will magically turn your speech into a song. A great way to make your own tunes. As The New York Times aptly puts it, Songify is the kind of thing, “that your friends will be waving in your face for a week until they tire of it, or until you scream at them to stop.”

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Jennifer Buchanan, BMT, MTA is the happy owner of JB Music Therapy and Author of TUNE IN. Our “Music Speaks” Blog aims to inspire you to use music with greater intention and knowledge. Call us to help or and browse our resources here.