BubbleBeats describes itself as “interactive jukebox tailored for Android devices that makes organizing music … fun.”
Let’s start with what BubbleBeats does. BubbleBeats is an app to organize the music on your phone into playlists. Think about that for a second. On the iPhone you create playlists in iTunes and then load them onto your phone.  Bubblebeats is different, you both create and use playlists on the device.
Sound different? It is. You can create an “infinite playlist” with “random playback.”  You start by adding bubbles to the screen and assigning songs to bubbles. The playlist comes from the intersection of the bubbles. Wrap the bubbles for an infinite list. Randomness comes from the different way that bubbles overlap.
It is a visual experience. You can create bubbles of different sizes and colors. Want to be very organized and have Beatles in blue, Jimi Hendrix in red,and Bruce Springsteen in green? Go for it, it’s up to you. Loud music in big bubbles, lullabies in small ones? That’s fine too. Or just have fun making random bubbles and surprise yourself. In that way, BubbleBeats lives up to its goal of making “organizing music … fun.” When you are tired of a song, it is strangely satisfying to flick it off the screen.
There are 2 reasons that I really like BubbleBeats.
- You can devise your own scheme for assigning bubbles and it feels like a creative process when you do
- BubbleBeats uses the Android phone as a new medium.
This is a new way to do a task that we typically do on a desktop. It is a different approach. Ultimately, some people may not like the new approach, but it is certainly worthwhile to give it a try.
Video of developer/artist Jason Van Anden describing and demonstrating BubbleBeats
The bubble-grouping idea s a very clever concept and one that could very possibly have future uses in fields other than music playlists. I interviewed Jason for my blog, and have to say he struck me as a very clever and clued up guy.
nice app.. great idea..