SoundShare for iPhone is a social networking service that focuses on sharing your music with others as well as discovering new music based on what your followers are listening to. It does for music what Instagram already does for photos and a little more than current music sharing services already offer.
SoundShare will currently integrate into your built-in iPod app and will share what you're listening to with your SoundShare followers. There's already support for services such as Spotify and Pandora built-in so as soon as developers start taking advantage of those you'll be able to share from a lot of services other than just the music you have in your iPod app.
If you'd like to share what you're listening to with your Twitter followers and Facebook friends you can link up both services but unlike Spotify, you aren't forced to share your listening history with either network. You can also toggle on a privacy setting in Settings that will require followers to be approved by you before they can see your music history and share with you.
From the main screen of SoundShare you'll see a list of songs you've listened to and a few statistics about yourself. SoundShare makes it easy to like, share, preview, and comment on music right from your main screen. Swipe to the right on any song title to bring up an options menu. You can also view what songs are popular under the Trending tab.
The best part of SoundShare is the ability to preview songs that others are listening to natively in the app. You'll see any comments or likes that your friends have left as well. If you like what you here you can jump right to that exact song in the iTunes store to purchase it. It will just get better once services like Spotify and Pandora start filtering into the app.
The good
- Great interface that's easy to use and learn your way around
- Privacy settings make it easier to control who sees what you're listening to which is something services like Spotify don't offer
- Native previews make it easy to check out songs that your friends are commenting on or liking with a single tap
The bad
- Since it's a private network your friends will need to have a SoundShare account. This may limit the social aspect until the app gets more publicity
- If you heavily rely on Spotify or Pandora, SoundShare can't (yet) filter your content in until those services jump on board
The bottom line
SoundShare definitely has the potential to become a great social network focused strictly around music. While Spotify and Pandora allow you to explore new music and create playlists off music you already like, neither gives you the opportunity to heavily network with the people that matter the most to you. With SoundShare you can choose who to follow and since it's based on the music you already own and love, you'll have a better idea of what users have simliar tastes in music.
The only current issue many users will run into is the lack of friends and family members to follow and share with. You'll either need to recommend the app to them or find others that are already using it. If the service gets the hype it deserves hopefully that'll change in the very near future.
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