SongDNA

Michael (Admin) | Aug 25, 2009 Music

User rating: (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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If you’re strictly looking at the icons it would be easy to assume that SongDNA was made by the same design-haters who made Song Info, but you’d be wrong! The two apps do essentially the same thing (deliver music lyrics and trivia and whatnot) and even though 8Projects may not have put a lot of thought into their icon, they at least went to the trouble of arranging your music info on a single, readable page within the app.

All SongDNA asks you for is an artist name or a title of some kind and then it will spit out some search results that lead to a page where you can see a short artist bio, YouTube videos, “highest US chart” position for songs, and if you’re lucky you’ll get some lyrics, too.

I can appreciate what this app is trying to do and how it’s trying to do it. SongDNA wants to be more than just a lyrics search… it wants to give you a detailed profile of the artist as well as the song, and unlike some other apps it doesn’t simply load someone else’s entire website into a browser window. SongDNA has a format and presents the info nicely, but unfortunately it just doesn’t seem all that good at finding the info it wants to present to you.

The very first item on each entry this app serves up is Highest US Chart position, and this field seems to say “unknown” most of the time. Artist photo, bio, and videos almost always display if it’s someone who’s had at least some success and it’ll even tell you when the artist was born and, when appropriate, when the artist croaked. Bios also include links to the artist’s website, their Wikipedia entry, and even their discography which is pretty cool.

Where SongDNA really falls on its face, though, is in song lyrics. I don’t mind that lyrics are the last item on the page if they get displayed, but anyone who’s buying an app like this is almost certainly gonna be looking for lyrics more often than not, and it’s pretty much a 50/50 proposition as illustrated by my random sampling of some pretty successful songs throughout the years:

Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me To The Moon”
Highest US Chart: unknown
Lyrics: not found

Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Highest US Chart: #6 (April 18, 1992)
Lyrics: Yes

Neil Diamond, “Cracklin’ Rosie”
Highest US Chart: unknown
Lyrics: Yes

AC/DC, “You Shook Me All Night Long”
Highest US Chart: unknown
Lyrics: Yes

Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
Highest US Chart: unknown
Lyrics: not found

MC Hammer, “U Can’t Touch This”
Highest US Chart: unknown
Lyrics: not found

Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean”
Highest US Chart: #1 (July 2, 1983)
Lyrics: Yes

Katy Perry, “I Kissed a Girl”
Highest US Chart: #1 (October 25, 2008)
Lyrics: not found

Eminem, “My Name Is”
Highest US Chart: #36 (May 1, 1999)
Lyrics: not found

Elvis Presley, “Hound Dog”
Highest US Chart: unknown
Lyrics: Yes

No app is going to find 100% of the lyrics you might go looking for, but I really wish SongDNA could improve on the .500 batting average because it’s kind of an app killer in my book. Also missing is a way to automatically look up whatever song is currently playing on the iPod, and the search is limited to 50 results which means a lot is getting left out if you’re talking about an artist who’s released more than 3 or 4 albums.

Luckily there’s a lite version of SongDNA so you can test drive it for free (or grab one of the codes 8Projects was nice enough to provide). Although I don’t think I’d pay for this app right now, I’d keep an eye on it and see if any new updates are released that address the frequency of lyrics and the nonexistent “now playing” button. If this app could plug those gaps and improve the search I think it would be worth a few bucks.

iTunes Link – SongDNA
Version 1.0.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1

MC Hammer used to be 2 legit 2 quit, now he's just 2 broke 2 pay his bills
MC Hammer used to be 2 legit 2 quit, now he's just 2 broke 2 pay his bills
Ok, I know he says 'Hammertime' like 500 times in this song, but the rest is still a mystery to me
Ok, I know he says 'Hammertime' like 500 times in this song, but the rest is still a mystery to me
No wonder his gangsta rap never caught on, he just doesn't know how to scowl and look pissed off
No wonder his gangsta rap never caught on, he just doesn't know how to scowl and look pissed off

Chart position unknown? It was Hammertime on the Billboard charts for the entire summer of 1990!
Chart position unknown? It was Hammertime on the Billboard charts for the entire summer of 1990!
Enough of Hammer, I wanna know all the words to 'Stop the Catbox'
Enough of Hammer, I wanna know all the words to 'Stop the Catbox'


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  • Michael (Admin)

    Thanks 8Projects!!

    And, as always, please play nice and LEAVE A COMMENT telling everyone which code you took and I’m sure the developer would appreciate if you could post a quick review in the App Store.

    F33PTKEPJL6T
    WPH4XYNHPKMX
    6WL6TMNMJYHJ

    Instructions on how to redeem promo codes can be found here:
    http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/how-to-get-free-apps/

    You must have a U.S. iTunes account to redeem codes.

  • bluespider

    I took 6WL6TMNMJYHJ – Thank you!!!

  • Brian

    I took WPH4XYNHPKMX thank you!

  • Kyle Eldridge

    Took F33PTKEPJL6T, thank you very much!

  • http://songdna.me/ 8Projects

    Thanks for the nice review! We’re aware of the issues you mention about not finding chart position and lyrics (it’s getting harder and harder to retrieve these legally, with all the big labels trying to prevent it…), and we are working to improve this in the next version, as well as showing info about the currently playing song. The next version will also have extensive Twitter integration where you can see what people say about a song/artist, and you can send tweets on songs.

  • http://appinspectors.wordpress.com/ typhoon

    hey everyone left a comment for once! lol
    cool app

  • http://songdna.me/ 8Projects / Dedicado

    Hi, SongDNA 2.0 has been released just last week.

    This version has been greatly enhanced! Some of the new features:
    – Now Playing: look up details on the track that is playing on your iPhone or iPod;
    – Shake for random next song, and automatically look up song details;
    – Play a track you’ve looked up directly from the app, if it is in your iPod library;
    – Twitter Vibe: see what people are tweeting about your favorite artists;
    – Tweets By: see tweets by the artist her-/himself (unique feature! we maintain the list of known artist accounts);
    – Share artist Twitter accounts you know with other users, and get mentioned in the app;
    – #nowplaying tweets: quickly post a tweet with the track you are listening to;
    – Share artist images on Twitter via Mobypicture (and all services you’ve added to Mobypicture, such as flickr, Facebook, WordPress);
    – Extensive Twitter integration in all areas: share everything on Twitter;
    – Facebook integration: publish tracks, artists and concerts to Facebook;
    – Tour/concert dates of your favorite artist based on your location, or just pick a country; buy tickets directly online;
    – Favorites: add your favorite tracks to your Favorites list, add notes to them, and mail them.
    – Find all albums on which a track appears;
    – Artist images in rotatable cover flow view;
    – Buy tracks you’ve found directly in iTunes.

    Have fun!