Band app done right: Live Phish
Phish has had a digital bent for a while. The band allows audio recording of shows and encourages fans to share them. They release digital downloads as soon an hour after each live performance in both MP3 and several lossless formats and they tweet the setlist of each show as it happens. They just re-launched Phish.com with a massive setlist database and all kinds of social goodness and now they've got a killer iOS app ($3.99, iTunes) to go with it.
At first I was miffed by the price, but then I realized that with it comes a redeem code to download a complete show in MP3 format (a $10 value). Perfect to download the show I was saw in Hershey, PA last night!
With it you can browse the band's live catalog (currently back to 2002), browse reviews, photos and show notes, listen to shows from the archive or a live stream Phish Radio. But the clincher is that you can listen any show that you've ever purchased (cleverly called your stash) from LivePhish.com -- a boon to Phish heads that purchase live shows, like me.
Background audio support for iOS 4 is a requirement for the next version and a universal build that supported native iPad resolution would be the icing on the cake. In addition, the developers should add lyrics, a searchable setlist database (to see exactly when was the last time they played Fluffhead for example) and statistics. For now I'll have to use Phanatic ($1.99, iTunes) for that.
Regardless of what you think of the band, it's pretty cool to be able to stream all of your favorite band shows.
What's your favorite band app?