Mac|Life - July 2011

AWEDITORIUM
Indie-rock hipster’s delight

Digital music lacks one important element from the analog days: romance. Contemplating album art and reading lyrics on jacket sleeves was a wonderfully tactile experience that only enhanced the listening. Aweditorium—a free, iPad-specific app from global indie music community thesixtyone—offers that with an online twist. You pick an artist from a giant photo grid, and while you listen to a their track, you’ll also get just-in-time lyrics, pop-up bio facts, links to videos, social media hooks, and the best iPad-sized image the band has to offer.

Since it’s all DIY—the information is provided by the artists themselves— sometimes you’ll find bad pictures and eye-rollingly hipster bios, but digging for treasures that fit your taste is most of the fun. Also, there are gatekeepers in this community, so while it’s nice to know artists are being screened (which helps keep the signal-to-noise ratio intact), enrollment is currently closed. It will be interesting to see how often content is refreshed and when new artists will be allowed within Aweditorium’s exclusive walls. More musical variety would be welcome too, as earnest alt-rock is almost over-represented.

Saving your favorite finds would be a nice option; right now you can either tweet
about them or buy the tracks immediately, but you can’t, say, send yourself an email
with links to check out later. But for the indie fan always eager to tell their friends “You haven’t heard of
(insert band here)?” with a superior tone of voice, Aweditorium is a satisfying, multimedia way to explore
the musical underground.
The bottom line. We’re certainly awed.—Dan Amrich
Aweditorium 1.02
thesixtyone
aweditorium.com

Price: Free GREAT

Band bios pop up in small bubbles over a full-screen photo, while the song plays in the background.

OUR FAVORITE APPS

Each month, the Mac|Life staff gives you a peek inside our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches to show you the latest gems, oddities, and WTFs that we’ve uncovered in the App Store.

Glee Karaoke
Confession
time: I’m not
just a geek.

I’m also a Gleek. As in, I love the show Glee. As a former cast member of high school musicals and all-around band-and-choir nerd, it’s just right up my alley. And so is Smule’s universal app Glee Karaoke ($0.99), which even lets you share your performances around the world. Okay, I won’t go that far, but I’ll still belt out a Gaga tune or two if I’m all alone.