2 Great Apps that act as great content filters, and turn you and the content you upload/share into a media channel.
The first one is wahwah.fm which I haven’t used yet but fully intend to explore. Watch the video above for the details, but I love the way it works. Firstly, I think the idea of accessing your friends or contacts playlists like a radio is amazing. Like Spotify social but live and thus more of a shared experience - exciting. I suppose one argument with all these things is the whole filter bubble / death of serendipity thing. Well for one I’m not sure I agree, but also wahwah.fm has a map search facility, where you can locate people ‘broadcasting’ in your area and log-in to hear what they listening to. I think this is really exciting, it adds specialness through locality to music which is always important. In some ways it is the democratisation of all the things I wrote about when Jamie XX launched his collaboration with Gil Scott Heron via live broadcasts accessed via mobile.
The other app I really like, and am using all the time is Showyou. I’ve only really used the iPad version so cannot comment on how it works on iPhone. But I think it really takes social video content to a new level in terms of viewer experience. More and more I find myself sitting down for 30mins and watching a mix of technology videos from the industry people I follow on twitter, music & comedy videos from friends on Facebook, and culture & arts videos off the blogs and magazines I follow on twitter. It really is amazing. If you like, you can share instantly via Twitter and Facebook and generally to the Showyou community adding to the usefulness and fun of it all.
Interestingly what you notice is certain people you’re connected you begin to trust and look for for good content, or that would be relevant to your mood at that time. This follow-share across different interests is great, it works, and you get a great mix of new, interesting videos you’d have never have found otherwise, and a stream of stuff that you’ll know you like. I guess for better or worse it actually turns your contacts into little media channels, but hey I’d rather trust them than ITV…
