Teaching the World to Sing: Tech Interview with Brendan O'Driscoll

What’s Soundwave?
“It’s a smartphone app for Android or iPhone that tracks the songs people listen to on their phone, whether through regular players or streaming apps, Spotify, Deezer and Rdio. It allows people to show what they are listening to. It’s very similar to Twitter in that I can follow friends, people I’m interested in, musicians or celebrities, and see the songs they’re playing, the songs they are playing the most, and then play then myself.”
Does the app have a networking feed?
“Like Twitter, there’s a main Activity Feed for all the people you follow. Then there’s a profile area, where you can look at your own profile and find the profiles of all the people you’re following. In their profile, you can see what they’ve listened to most recently.”
Do you have to fill in a list of your favourite artists?
“No, that’s the great thing about Soundwave that separates us from everyone else. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you don’t have to do anything else. You just listen to your music and our app tracks that instantly, without disrupting your normal habits.”
What’s the Music Map?
“A way of discovering music by geography. If I was into hip-hop music, I could go to Brooklyn, New York, on the map and draw a circle around that area, and instantly see the most recently played songs coming out of that area. You can plug into anywhere in the world, whether it’s a country, a city, a street, or even building.”
What was the theory behind Soundwave?
“On a social level, people spend a lot of time talking to their friends about artists, new bands. We thought it was strange there was no way of sharing that.”
Has the app proven popular amongst the music industry as well as fans?
“Very much so. We have a real-time insight into what’s happening - what songs people are playing, where they are playing them, how often they are playing them. We’re hoping to explore that more and see how we can give that information back to the industry, so they can craft a better experience for the music lover.”
Has the success of Soundwave taken you by surprise?
“Absolutely. It’s incredible to watch the explosive growth. The app has been downloaded in 124 out of 196 countries in the world. To watch this from our small office in the heart of Dublin is amazing. We’ve got some great endorsements. Steve Wozniak, the founder of Apple was an early Beta tester. Stephen Fry, the actor, launched Soundwave. Great Irish bands like Kodaline and the Coronas were using the product almost from day one.”

www.soundwave.com