Loudie is Making Lots of Noise with its New Update

By Kira Grunenberg

The phrase “There’s an app for that.” used to be funny. Then it became as insufferable as “Can you hear me now?!” during the early days of cell reception. However, the former rings true on those special and rare occasions, when the lightest finger tap suddenly opens a possibility previously only imaginable.

The last time we covered Loudie for iOS, the burden of text messages rates was still relevant.  Now in 2014, Loudie has upgraded far beyond the singular function of feed-based and self-contained commentary on concerts. The app’s biggest feature additions are unique within the context of social interaction and live music, but to the same end, the app development and creative team shrewdly avoided solely navigating new waters. If the live-music recap and notification power of Set.fm or Turntable Live were mashed together with the real time, global access power of Soundwave along with Facebook-derived, data synchronicity-recommendation integration ability, that’s Loudie’s newest incarnation.

Core updates for Loudie’s main functionalities include the following:

• Easily track artists with simplified artists and venue profiles.

• Clean and straightforward activity stream for viewing recently uploaded videos for artists they are following, as well as future concerts have been recommended to one’s profile.

• Watch videos of artists’ concerts or watch any videos from concerts, uploaded by users, from anywhere around the world, brought to you, in real time.

• Post comments about concerts and tag other users.

• Ping friends (a la Snapchat) with an invite or, share videos/concerts.

This slew of new capabilities in addition to a push of free passes, promotions, and in-app ticket purchases cements the cumulative package in a solid self-containment — fans of live music will certainly want to add or update Loudie in their music app arsenal.

The only tricky piece of this fan-focused formula is the footage itself. Ubiquity and real time access to content “for the people, by the people” is stellar. However, where Loudie excels in a genuinely connective and social user experience, it falls a little short on video quality. As expected, users aren’t going to be allowed to upload or view entire sets. The available clips of past shows are limited to the length of Instagram videos, or 15 seconds (multiple clips from the same concert might show in your feed, thus capturing different angles or parts of the same song/set). Add to that the unavoidable limitations of extremely loud audio recorded to a mobile device and it becomes obvious that clips are not uploaded for the pristine character of their digital capture.

Nonetheless, considering that live performances typically lack perfect execution and come with loud volume, mic feedback, belted vocals and the like, this single pair of shortcomings is easy enough to overlook.  The app can still be enjoyed through a lens of social memory and with the collective energy of fellow fans.

You can download Loudie from the iTunes App Store.

Find Loudie on Facebook and or follow them on Instagram or Twitter @Loudieapp.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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