I’ve been using an iPhone for about the past six months, and while there are somethings that I totally love about it…but it is not perfect, and I find that lots of applications are not nearly as useful as you would like them to be.
Recently Analog Apartment posted about a new iPhone app that uses discogs.com. If you aren’t familiar with Analog Apartment it is a cross between Apartment Therapy and a techy audio file blog with a strong focus on vinyl.
The RECORDS iPhone App uses discogs.com to look up an album’s information quickly and efficently. I don’t know if you are like me, but I’ve definitely tried to look things up on allmusic.com while at the record shop, and unless you are looking for reviews I’m pretty sure this application has what you need.
+’s:
The RECORDS app gives you a welth of information: Title, Artist, Record Label, Format, Country, Release Date, Genres, Styles, Notes (if applicable), and Track Listings.
Initially I was skeptical so I started off with something that was kind of obscure. I typed in Cold Cave. I wanted to see what info it would bring up. I was slightly surprised when I get a whole bunch of results…it not only brought up the LPs, but also the CDs. I chose Love Comes Close. The results were pretty cool. In the notes section on Love Comes Close (the LP on Heart Work) it said:
“Limited to 1,000 on black vinyl.”
At this point I was pretty impressed. I’m interested in seeing what it says when the re-press comes available from Matador.
Next up I thought I would try something a little harder, and I punched in Gary War. Just like Cold Cave I got a whole bunch of results (both searches brought up 7″s and eps). I knew the pressing details of Horribles Parade, and thought that I would check it out. The notes section on this one were equally impressive:
“Special edition with screen printed alternate cover art, a hand numbered insert, and an mp3 download code. Limited to 150 Copies.”
Almost every album I have looked up has cover art, and all relevant information. There are some problems though.
-’s
The information is pretty detailed, but I have tried to stump it and I think that it runs into problems with re-presses. For example when punching in Nobunny…I get one hit for Love Visions, and it says that it is a press of 200 copies…I know that this LP is currently in it’s 3rd press, but those were not mentioned.
Of course with the digestible format that discogs.com has created in this app it will fall short in some areas…for example if you are trying to figure out exactly what pressing of a Beatles album…the 20 or so listings for Abbey Road might be confusing, and in the end you might not be able to figure out exactly what you have in your hands when at the record shop.
Lastly…the search is sometimes case sensitive. A little annoying, but something I can deal with. This hasn’t happened every time, but when writing this review I had a problem searching Cold Cave until I used capital C’s on both words.
Overall:
Discogs.com is a community built database so the information will be getting better each day, and I really feel that it was a pretty good for the small prices of $1.99. I highly recommend trying it out. It might not have everything you need, but it has most of it…and it is a whole lot faster than trying to use the internet on your phone. If you want the database to be better head on over to Discogs and join, and contribute to the information.
Links:
- Companion post with mp3s by Cold Cave and Gary War.
- Discogs
- RECORDS iPhone App
- more on Gary War here.
- more on No Bunny here.
- more on Cold Cave here.
