Soundwave to unveil instant messenger feature

Users of music discovery app Soundwave will be able to chat with each other via an “instant music messenger” being unveiled by the Irish start-up today.

The company is releasing an updated version of its app, often referred to as the “instagram of music”, which will feature new design, additional product features and cleaner usability.

Soundwave users will be able to create private groups to chat and share music with friends and followers.

“One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received about our app was that there was no way to chat. So we have been working on that for the last six months,” said Soundwave chief executive and founder Brendan O’Driscoll.

“The instant music messenger will be similar to Whatsapp. You can chat and share music on it. You can also create a playlist with friends adding songs from YouTube, iTunes, Spotify etc.”

The updated app will have “music on tap” whereby users will be able to play the full YouTube video for any song directly within Soundwave or open it in Spotify/Rdio/Deezer with one click.

“You can take all the songs shared and open them on your preferred player,” O’Driscoll said.

Unlike typical music apps that aim to promote manual sharing, the Soundwave app has the unique ability to pull in a user’s song plays from their Android, Apple and other streaming apps and sync these songs to their Soundwave profile to show others what songs they listen to.

Soundwave users can then follow friends, family, musicians, sports stars and celebrities to see what songs they are playing and therefore discover new music.

The app also allows users to instantly see what songs are playing at any location.

O’Driscoll said the app has just recently celebrated its first birthday and the release of Soundwave 2.0 is yet another major milestone for the company. The free app has been downloaded more than one million times in 190 countries worldwide.

The company is expanding its footprint in the United States, with the opening of a new office in San Francisco. Its founders have been nominated in the emerging category of the 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.