With the likes of Jedward and Crystal Swing proving unfathomably popular, you’d be forgiven for thinking Irish music was in the gutter. Thankfully Breaking Tunes will change your mind.
Released in the past few days for to the ‘Free’ section of the App Store, Breaking Tunes has proved a huge success already, sitting pretty at #37 in the chart as of this writing. Built by First Music Contact, which support Irish independent musicians, the release has been funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports. So how does it work?
Simply put, Breaking Tunes connects users to over 1900 artist profiles, photos, videos and gigs from the Breakingtunes.com website. With the app at your fingertips, you can discover new bands, new releases and find out when they’re playing their next gig. If you’re an unsigned band you can increase exposure by registering your act on the Breaking Tunes website too.
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The app connects you to over 1900 artist profiles, music, photos and videos from the Breakingtunes.com website, and it’ll give you news about gigs happening in your area too. As First Music Contact’s Angela Dorgan told Phantom News, th app is ” one of the only places where you can get all gigs, in all 32 counties in Ireland, in one app.”
Tourism and Culture Minister Mary Hanafin echoed Angela’s enthusiasm and said that the Breaking Tunes app is one of 25 new projects to recieve funding from the department’s Cultural Technology intiative. If true, it’s a fantastic sign of the future, as the app, developed by iorum, is highly polished and user-friendly from the offset.
The bulk of Breaking Tunes is split between four tabs – ‘Home’ ‘Browse’, ‘Listing’ and ‘About’. ‘About’ is a fairly standard explanation of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport’s input, ‘Browse’ allows users to search between location, artist and genre and ‘Home’ takes users to a section showcasing featured artists and newest artists to the music portal. Perhaps the biggest attraction for music fans will be the ‘Listings’ tab, which gives venue details and show times for all gigs tonight or over the next three months. It’s a handy setup for gigs and unlike any other rival app you can find, plus it’s Irish.
Though it’s early days for Breaking Tunes, we’ve been extremely impressed with what we’ve seen so far. Future updates will hopefully take advantage of a personalised playlist or incorporate greater sharing with social networks, yet for now this a slick and thoroughly helpful app that should go some way in banishing the less-than-sparkling reputation Irish music has recently garnered. And the app hasn’t a single mention of Jedward thus far.
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