Soundhound did a great job in giving users a competitive option in the music-detection app market alongside Shazam, so to celebrate that success it’s gone ahead and provided a robust update packed with features that users had asked for. Not frivolous by any means, these new additions continue to position Soundhound as the must-have music detection app.
The greatest changes to the app all involve social media in some way, which is not necessarily a bad thing. For an app that had the music detection down as well as Soundhound, additions to its social media playbook are appropriate.
First and foremost, users can now share their listening habits on Facebook and Twitter with a single click. Both social networks can also be selected or de-selected with each share, as well.
So if you’d like everyone on Facebook and Twitter to know you’re discovering an old Modest Mouse song, you can do so quickly and easily. If, on the other hand, you don’t want your Twitter friends knowing about your Eagle Eye Cherry find, you can cut the sharing off for either network just as easily.
Another new feature tying into that enhanced sharing is an autoshare feature that will share any music you discover using the app with your Facebook and twitter friends without even a prompt. This seems like it would benefit those who don’t mind over-sharing, but as a feature that isn’t a requirement, it’s just a nice bonus for anyone that wants it.
The final new feature lets you customize the message displayed when you share a song. I think I might like this the best, if only because it gets so tiresome to see linked music or videos tagged in the same generic way. It might not convince someone to purchase the app alone, but its inclusion is a nice nod to fan requests.
Really, all of these additions are in service to Soundhound’s users in some way. While that doesn’t make them essential, it shows that the developers have been listening to requests, and that should matter for people who are looking to become invested in an app that clearly wants to be the best at what it does.
