Skip to main content

Cymbal mixes Twitter and Spotify to easily share your favorite music

It’s no secret that people prefer discovering music from friends and artists rather than a computer algorithm, but as of yet there’s no definitive social media platform for music discovery. Yes, you can get leads from Facebook or Twitter, or follow along to what friends are listening to on Spotify. But there still isn’t a widely-used social media platform for sharing music. Three friends from Tufts University think they have the solution with a new music discovery app called Cymbal. 

The app allows users to “share your song of the moment” (called a ‘cymbal’) on your personal profile, scroll through a feed of your friends’ favorite songs, and listen, like, and comment away. Promising an “always-updating playlist” of music Cymbal leverages the services you already use to allow you to easily share what you’re into at the moment, and follow tunes from friends and followers.

Recommended Videos

To use Cymbal, you create an account by logging in through Twitter or Facebook, and then connect your Spotify account. After choosing Facebook and Twitter friends as well as publications and artists you want to follow, your main feed will be populated with a scrolling list of ‘cymbals’ (or shared songs) — indicated by the song’s corresponding album cover — from those you follow. Cymbal allows you to share songs from both Soundcloud and Spotify, although you’re only able to listen to full tracks from Spotify if you have a Premium account.

Cymbal recently received $1.1 million in seed funding from Vaizra Investments (also a funder of Yik Yak, and Casper) and General Catalyst (Snapchat, Airbnb). Since its public launch this spring, the app has accumulated 17,000 downloads according to Forbes.

It’s certainly not the first attempt at creating a social media platform for sharing music (see: This is My Jam, Turntable.fm, and Apple’s much-maligned iTunes Ping, among others). But it has simplicity on its side, and its young developer — Gabe Jacobs — has had some success in the app ecosystem before, albeit with a silly concept: Jacobs’ virtual whoopee cushion called Fart For Free was downloaded over 4 million times — and hey, he was still in high school back then.

Jacobs, alongside co-founders Amadou Crookes and Mario Gomez-Hall, aim to open an office in New York this fall and grow the platform. We’ll be watching.

Chris Leo Palermino
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…
Spotify adds music videos for Premium users in a handful of countries
A promo image for music videos on Spotify.

Spotify today announced that it's bringing music videos (ask your parents, kids) to the streaming music service. With some caveats, however.

First is that this is somehow all in "beta," though it's not exactly clear what that means. It's not like music videos are new. Or streaming video is new. It could be that the catalog of music videos is said to be "limited," so maybe Spotify is just testing the waters before it spends more money on more music videos. But Spotify says you'll be able to watch vids from artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice, among others. Spotify does say "In this beta launch, we’ll continue to innovate and iterate based on feedback from both users and artists."

Read more
Apple Music just got a cool feature you won’t find on Spotify
Apple Music Replay screenshots via Apple.

The Apple Music Replay feature gives you a rundown of which songs and albums you've listened to on the service every year. But now, it's getting a makeover that will make it more handy. Rundowns are being offered every month, allowing you to see your favorite tunes during the past 30-plus days — as well as how often you've listened to those titles.

The new monthly Apple Music Replay feature is only available through the web on the Apple Music Replay website, which is unfortunate, but unsurprising. The annual Apple Music Replay launches every December and is also a web-only feature.

Read more
Spotify just made live music a little bit better
Event listing for Chappel Roan on Spotify, seen on an iPhone.

Spotify has integrated Bandsintown to make it easier to see when and where your favorite act is playing — and to get tickets. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

It's not an uncommon situation: You're doing your thing on Spotify, listening to whatever it is the kids listen to these days, and you want to know where that band is playing. And whether you can get tickets. Both of those things are a little easier now that Spotify has teamed up with Bandsintown.

Read more