Record Bird keeps you up to date on artist new releases by scanning your Apple Music library

AppleInsider

Record Bird is a free iPhone app that allows users to be informed about new and upcoming music releases from their favorite artists. And this week it was updated to add support for Apple Music, making it easier than ever to be in the know about upcoming album releases.

Record Bird version 1.3 is now available on the iOS App Store, adding Apple Music integration, alongside previous support for Spotify and Facebook. By granting access, Record Bird can scan artists in a user's library from all three services, automatically adding them to a list of followed artists.

When albums release, the app offers quick links for streaming via Apple Music, or purchasing via iTunes. Integration with the iOS Music app also supports users who purchase music, rather than users who subscribe to Apple Music.

New albums are presented on the main "My Releases" pane in two tabs: Upcoming, and Released. Here, users can scroll to see what just came out, or what may be upcoming.

Tracklists, news, videos, and other relevant information can be found for both upcoming and new releases.

The app also includes a "Discover" pane that allows users to broaden their musical tastes and hear new artists recommended based on their listening habits.

Record Bird is a free download from the App Store that's 74.8 megabytes in size. It requires iOS 8.0 or later.

dreyfus2

That has been puzzling me for quite some time. The most obvious useful function not available in the iTS: Get alerts for new releases from artists you have purchased stuff from, new episodes/seasons of TV shows previously bought... All the things one might actually want do not exist. Instead of this Apple sends me weekly emails recommending albums, movies, even books which are absolutely outside of my interests (which they should know, since they have all that data.)

It is not a biggie, but with the often anemic performance of the iTS (and the still terrible search functionality), I would really like that and buy more if I knew about things in the first place.

drhounsell

I've been looking for an app like this for Apple Music since it launched! Don't understand why it isn't part of the service. THANK YOU!!!

friedmud

Or you could, you know, use Spotify which does a great job of this...

Apple Music is a joke.  I just tried to sign up again last month to see if it had improved.  I REALLY want it to because it works with my Apple Watch... but it's still TERRIBLE.

Music discovery (like this article shows) is so poor it's laughable.  AM appears to be for people who just want to hit Shuffle on the Top 40 playlist... because that's essentially all you can do...

paxman

friedmud said:

Or you could, you know, use Spotify which does a great job of this...

Apple Music is a joke.  I just tried to sign up again last month to see if it had improved.  I REALLY want it to because it works with my Apple Watch... but it's still TERRIBLE.

Music discovery (like this article shows) is so poor it's laughable.  AM appears to be for people who just want to hit Shuffle on the Top 40 playlist... because that's essentially all you can do...

Totally get that you prefer Spotify for whatever reason, but you paint Apple Music in an unfair light. I have Apple Music and have no complaints. I certainly don't find it TERRIBLE. 

There are many options beyond Shuffling Top 40 playlists - in fact it seems to me you haven't really tried much at all.

And the article doesn't show that music discovery is so poor it is laughable at all - it merely states that Record Bird has a music discovery feature.

So, sure, you prefer Spotify - no issues there, but in the limited way you present you Apple Music evaluation your bias clearly clouds your view.

tcdriver

friedmud said:

Or you could, you know, use Spotify which does a great job of this...

Apple Music is a joke.  I just tried to sign up again last month to see if it had improved.  I REALLY want it to because it works with my Apple Watch... but it's still TERRIBLE.

Music discovery (like this article shows) is so poor it's laughable.  AM appears to be for people who just want to hit Shuffle on the Top 40 playlist... because that's essentially all you can do...

I agree with paxman. I totally get that you like Spotify, but it seems you missed all of the features of Apple Music, including Discovery. I joined Apple Music the first month it was available and listened to it for free for 3 months. It was a no brainer for me to join Apple Music. Since that time I added songs that I discovered, meaning I had never heard of the song or the artist, to a Discovered Playlist. As of today I have 316 songs in that playlist, in addition to many other playlists that I created. I subscribed to Spotify for 3 years before Apple Music came along and didn't discover that number of tunes in 3 years!  For me Apple Music has many features that Spotify doesn't, including the live and worldwide Beats One 1 Radio and several Beats radio stations I like. I enjoy listening to several genres of music, and I rarely listen to a playlist of Top 40 tunes. 

spamsandwich

Seems to me the reason for them to scan your library is to acquire marketing information. I'd not use this service as it scans my library and would represent a security risk, IMHO.

edited November 2016

radster360

Will have to give this app a try. Yes, I have to admit that doing effective searches is really not the forte of most of the Apple products. For example, I would be nice for doing a search on iTunes that allow me to do following search - Year=20* and genre=Bollywood and movie="Desi Boyz" :-) 

On related topic: Same limited search problem in with Spotlight and Mail. BTW, Does anyone know that now the we have Siri on MacOS, does it allow  for search - "Siri, Show me all emails I received this year that I received from my Mom (and Mom is one of the person in my contact list)"

paxman

SpamSandwich said:

Seems to me the reason for them to scan your library is to acquire marketing information. I'd not use this service as it scans my library and would represent a security risk, IMHO.

If the scanning results in Ads popping up everywhere, then yes. I am no fan of ads like most people here. If someone has used this app it would be interesting to know what exactly one will be signing up for. It says the app is free but no app is truly free, right? I am not that much worried about the security risk.

raulcristian

Pity it doesn't show up in the Spanish Apple Store...

phone-ui-guy

Isn't this what Connect is supposed to be for? You favorite your artists that you care about and it shows what the artists post. If the artist are on top of it you will know when their new releases come out. Pretty sure it will show you information for every artist you have by default. I set it to only show the ones I favorite. I guess no one else is using this feature?

ktappe

I downloaded it. To use it you have to sign up. This means either giving them a lot of personal info or signing in with Facebook. I tried the latter and they wanted my entire friends list. Nope. App has been deleted from my phone. I think AI should not recommend apps that demand lots of personal info.

spamsandwich

ktappe said:

I downloaded it. To use it you have to sign up. This means either giving them a lot of personal info or signing in with Facebook. I tried the latter and they wanted my entire friends list. Nope. App has been deleted from my phone. I think AI should not recommend apps that demand lots of personal info.

And there you go. "Free" services are never free.

powernoize

Great tipp! I registered with an e-mail account, so no funny Facebook stuff for me ;-) The app does what it should. Really great. I also use a free Music Tracker to look for new, deleted and changed songs in my library. Very useful! https://itunes.apple.com/app/music-tracker-keep-track-your/id1062583712?mt=8

equality72521

CheapCharts is a great app with similar functionality, no login in and no ads

matrix077

friedmud said:

Or you could, you know, use Spotify which does a great job of this...

Apple Music is a joke.  I just tried to sign up again last month to see if it had improved.  I REALLY want it to because it works with my Apple Watch... but it's still TERRIBLE.

Music discovery (like this article shows) is so poor it's laughable.  AM appears to be for people who just want to hit Shuffle on the Top 40 playlist... because that's essentially all you can do...

I never have problems discovering songs using Apple Music. My problem now is I just have too many songs to listen to. In fact, I just discovered Kandace Springs and I really like her. Is Apple Music perfect? No, but it's sure make my life easier and more enjoyable. 
Good luck dealing with childish company like Spotify. (no watchOS, tvOS)

edited November 2016

matrix077

phone-ui-guy said:

Isn't this what Connect is supposed to be for? You favorite your artists that you care about and it shows what the artists post. If the artist are on top of it you will know when their new releases come out. Pretty sure it will show you information for every artist you have by default. I set it to only show the ones I favorite. I guess no one else is using this feature?

No, this is what Twitter is for.

rotateleftbyte

ktappe said:

I downloaded it. To use it you have to sign up. This means either giving them a lot of personal info or signing in with Facebook. I tried the latter and they wanted my entire friends list. Nope. App has been deleted from my phone. I think AI should not recommend apps that demand lots of personal info.

That is silly. Why do you need to give all this data just to get music updates? What a load of cock.
As for having a FB Id? Well that counts me out as I will never even visit that site that is a cesspit of hatred. (a friend of mine lost his daughter after FB cyber bullying).

igorsky

friedmud said:

Or you could, you know, use Spotify which does a great job of this...

Apple Music is a joke.  I just tried to sign up again last month to see if it had improved.  I REALLY want it to because it works with my Apple Watch... but it's still TERRIBLE.

Music discovery (like this article shows) is so poor it's laughable.  AM appears to be for people who just want to hit Shuffle on the Top 40 playlist... because that's essentially all you can do...

  "Nobody can like anything that I don't like" 

   - This guy

edited November 2016