Former Tufts University undergrads have created an app that has thundered onto the scene. Cymbal is a music-sharing platform, similar to Instagram with its simple interface and stunning graphics.
Cymbal’s Head of Growth and only non-Tufts grad, Charlie Kaplan, recently contacted me about featuring WXOU, Oakland University’s student-run radio station, on the app. Fast forward a month and WXOU is a verified account and gaining followers fast as wildfire.
Cymbal is set to launch a college radio vertical — a featured section on the app, dedicated to college radio stations — and Kaplan took time to answer a few questions to get students excited about the up-and-coming social networking app.
What is Cymbal and why do we need it?
Kaplan: Cymbal is a music discovery app for the iPhone. It's commonly compared to Instagram, but rather than posting photos or videos, you post songs. You follow friends, as well as favorite blogs, artists …your feed becomes a fully-playable, constantly-updated playlist, curated by people who matter.
People love Cymbal for different reasons, so I'll speak for myself. I need Cymbal because, despite all its convenience, the advent of digital music made it too easy for me to enjoy music in isolation. Cymbal helps me get recommendations from sources I'm interested in … instead of faceless algorithms. Not only does that make it easier to find music, it makes music I find significant. Hearing a punk song is one thing; hearing it from my friend who knows more about punk than anyone is another. Much of your feelings about a song are formed by whom it came from. Cymbal is bringing that back to music.
Explain the college vertical and why the app focuses on college radio.
Kaplan: Most of the Cymbal team had radio shows in college and loved them. But college stations face a common problem: It's hard getting people to listen. This is odd, because college radio has long been the place where alternative and emerging music has found its first home …
So this is weird, right? People care about what college radio is doing and yet don't listen. Considering four-fifths of Cymbal were college students as of May, this seemed like an immediate problem. It also seemed like an obvious way to find the right users for Cymbal. We want to be the world's best community for music lovers and college radio stations have already done the hard work of finding them.
What does Cymbal’s future look like?
Kaplan: The goal is to make Cymbal the universal listening room. No matter what you like to listen to, you should be able to get on Cymbal and find your community. We've got work ahead of us. We're working on a web and Android app and will be launching more app integrations to join Soundcloud and Spotify. Then we get to have fun, figuring out new ways to get people the music that matters, to bring artists and listeners closer, to help musicians get the word out about what they're doing. That all starts with amazing people sharing their music, and that's already happening fast.
For the full Q-and-A and more information about Cymbal, visit oaklandpostonline.com.
