Songkick

CASE

Songkick already had a very popular website. One thing the company was missing though was an app that would let their users have the same great experience on their iPhone and iPod Touch as on the web. Our job was to make an app that would build on the features from the website and even improve some of them, to make it even easier to track the concerts of the users’ favorite bands.

What you launch an app the hardest part is usually to get noticed. In this case we didn’t have to worry about that because Songkick already have a very big user base. Because of that we knew that a lot of people would know about the app right away, and that those with iPhone or iPod Touches would probably go and try it out. All we had to focus on then was to make sure that all those people wouldn’t be dissappointed when they got the app on their iPhone. The first thing we did was to ensure that the app would give the user a great first impression.

We knew that it would take a little while for the app to scan the user’s music library and we thought that we would do something more interesting than just the usual loading spinner. So instead we did a gorgeous custom scanning animation for the user to look at. Throughout the app we continued adding custom elements, as a matter of fact every single element, every button, every cell and every pixel in this app is custom. Our goal was to take the standards set by Apple and combine it with the unique look from Songkick’s website. In the end we think that we succeeded quite well in coming up with a look that had the touch of iOS and the feel of Songkick at the same time.

RECEPTION

Since the release of the app it has gotten an enormously positive reception. It was downloaded more than 100.000 times during the first two weeks, Apple named it App of the Week as well as one of the Best Apps of 2011, it has a 4,5 to 5 star rating in every country where it is available, it has been named Billboard App of the Month and last but not least it has recieved a Mobile FWA Award.