Snoop Dogg's reinvention as reggae artist Snoop Lion is yielding a documentary film and album, both called Reincarnated and due for release this month. Now there's an app for that too.
Snoop Lion's Reincarnated: Track Notes App is a free download for iPad, released by digital publishing startup Citia, which has previously launched apps based on books by Kevin Kelly, John Maxwell and Dan Ariely.
The Snoop Lion app is the company's first venture into music, and the latest attempt to find a digital replacement for the liner notes and artwork from vinyl and CD albums.
"What you get isn't just the music – it's ABOUT the music," explains its App Store listing. "Where it came from, How it was made, WHY it was made. It's liner notes for the 21st century. Multimedia, multi-sensory, made for the fans."
At launch, three full audio tracks are included in the app, each with its own lyric video, quotes from producers and collaborators, and information on the reggae songs that inspired them – complete with links to buy them on Apple's iTunes Store.
The app also promotes Snoop Lion merchandise – t-shirts, "grindtainers" and a comfortable-looking pair of branded slippers, all sold from his Facebook store – as well as providing information on his Mind Gardens charity in Jamaica.
The music and videos are streamed from YouTube, with fans encouraged to register their details to be told when the "full app" is available after the album goes on sale. A purchase will presumably be involved then, either of music within the app, or from the iTunes Store.
I've been using the app this morning, and it's interesting, fleshing out the backstory of Snoop's reinvention, and providing lots of useful recommendations for any of his fans who are dipping their toes (slippered or otherwise) into the reggae genre.
Citia's Snoop Lion app includes three free songs and copious background material It's just the latest example of a musician or label experimenting with apps as an album replacement or companion – this falls more into the latter category.
Earlier in March, pop duo Hurts took a different path, working with digital agency FOAM on an audio-only iPhone game, soundtracked by songs from their latest album Exile.
Meanwhile, a recent Philip Glass remix album spawned an iOS "interactive visualisations" app called REWORK_ (Philip Glass Remixed), developed by Scott Snibbe Studio – the agency that had a pivotal role in Bjork's Biophilia album-app project in 2011.
The Snoop Lion app's "liner notes for the 21st century" pitch corresponds with something Scott Snibbe told The Guardian in an interview back in 2011 about how apps might attempt to recapture the "falling in love" nature of listening to vinyl.
"You'd often sit on the carpet and let the whole thing wash over you while looking at the liner notes and artwork: it was a complete, immersive, sensory experience," he said.
Multi-sensory, as Citia puts it today. Liner notes, of course, were also something Apple was trying to revive with its iTunes LP format in iTunes, although it's not been hugely popular with labels or music fans – and has notably not yet been ported to Apple's iPad or iPhone.
Lady Gaga is promising a plethora of bells and whistles in an app for her upcoming ARTPOP album, telling fans in September 2012 that "The most major way to fully immerse yourself in ARTPOP is through the APP… completely interactive with chats, films for every song, extra music, content, gaga inspired games, fashion updates, magazines, and more still in the works".
Gaga is promising to "upload new things to the APP all the time", which raises the possibility of an album as something that evolves over time, and which fans might even pay for with a monthly subscription. Even if she eschews that option, if ARTPOP is a hit, it may spur even more experimentation by artists and labels.
There is still mileage in albums as apps, or apps as companions for albums then. But the jury remains out on how meaningful they'll be for artists and the music industry compared to the wider disruption being wrought by the growth of streaming services like Spotify and Deezer.
Here too, apps have a role to play. Nick Cave's new album is accompanied by an HTML5 app running in Spotify's desktop software helping fans dig into his back catalogue by theme, and it joins other apps for One Direction, David Guetta, Blur and Tiesto on the platform.
Meanwhile, in Spotify's Scandinavian heartland, EMI's Nordic division has released iPhone apps for five artists that enable fans to stream their albums in full from Spotify within those apps – in contrast to the Snoop Lion app's focus on iTunes downloads.
Snoop Dogg may be reinventing himself musically, but the music industry continues to go through its own digital rebirthing process, where a few huge revenue streams are replaced by a patchwork of digital, physical, live and licensing income.
Album apps aren't a simple, lucrative replacement for declining CD sales, but they're part of the industry's own reincarnation as a 21st century business.
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