Since getting the Verizon iPhone a month or so ago, I’ve gone overboard downloading apps. I’m still heavily in the honeymoon phase of the relationship with my mobile device. That being said, a few weeks ago I was hipped to the XXL magazine app, so I figured I’d let people know what music magazines are up to in the app space.
It’s an extremely social app that allows you to share the articles as well as make comment directly from the app.
However, the trivia aspect of the app is a little lacking. It appears that there’s only 20 questions and you have to pay $1.99 to unlock all of them. And the bigger question is whether or not the hip-hop community engages well with trivia. In other words, should that functionality be there in the first place?
However, the most innovative part of the app is the user-generated freestyle function and community voted leaderboard. People get 30 seconds to record and other people can nominate it. What would have been better is if there was a contest…winner chosen by Eminem and gets a verse on his next album. Maybe not that exact suggestion, but something similar.
In addition, I suggested to a friend in hip-hop PR that she have one of her artists submit a freestyle. People would definitely question whether it’s really them and probably ask their friends for their opinion. The conversation and social amplification would totally be worth it for the artists especially since it would only take 30 seconds of their time.
On whole, it’s a solid app for a music content publisher with functionality going beyond just editorial content. Who knows where future apps will take us…perhaps group chats with artists or exclusive content not online?
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