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

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.

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18 Comments

dreyfus2

said about 7 years ago

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

said about 7 years ago

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

said about 7 years ago

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

said about 7 years ago

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

said about 7 years ago

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.