We’ve all been there. That one time when you are listening to a very nice song on your phone and, naturally, you also want to watch its video. You quickly open the YouTube app the type in the name of the song followed by the word “official” just so that you can get the official video clip in the search results that follow. Even YouTube does a much better job suggesting searches with the word “official” thrown in.
Only that may or may not work.
So now, what to do?
Enter Music Mate.
A new app that isn’t old on the Play Store, yet, Music Mate sets out to make things a little bit easier by listening in on all audio playing on your device and offering contextual information that includes quick previews to the video of any song currently playing on your Android smartphone. An app listening in on whatever you are playing sounds very creepy in this post-Snowden world but it’s a small sacrifice to make for something that, in my experience, works so well.
A bubble that stays on the side of the display à la Messenger makes sure that Music Mate’s operations do not interfere with whatever it is you usually do as you listen to your music. In my case, that is checking up my always-interesting Twitter feed and it manages to stay out of the way.
I like the way the app keeps track of my “Find’z”, allows me to watch any official video it discovers later on (you know, because I am almost always doing something else as I listen to my music), allows me to preview any videos, provides a chart for me to discover what’s trending and, most important of all, is compatible with all my favourite music playing apps – GoneMad, Spotify and Poweramp. More power to the developers of this little gem. And to think it’s still in beta!
Only one problem, though, Music Mate seems to be having a problem recognising a lot of my favourite local music and matching it with its appropriate official videos on YouTube. Seriously, even Barack Obama knows Kenyan Afro-Pop boy band Sauti Sol’s Sura Yako song. What is, Music Mate?
