In the mould of Letterboxd, but not quite, Record Club is attempting to be the definitive virtual platform for anyone who cares about music — with absolutely no time for algorithms. It is an app and desktop platform where you can discover albums through other users with similar tastes, post reviews (however long) and showcase what you are listening to.
Everything you would expect from a virtual club of music lovers is here — what you are listening to at the moment, artistes you can follow, lists others can browse, and so on. You can see what your friends are listening to and even which albums are trending.
Alongside your profile, you can list your top five albums and five others that could be on heavy rotation. Pet Sounds, The Wall, Kind of Blue, Hot Buttered Soul, and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, anyone?
Custom lists can be made and shared, and you can add records to your queue to keep track of albums you have been meaning to listen to but somehow never quite got around to. Melomania might be the word for it, if Record Club has well and truly got its hooks into you.
Not that the app is without its hiccups. It occasionally stalls for a few seconds when you are quickly browsing through albums, and the landing page can feel a touch cluttered — but we find ourselves coming back all the same, at least for now. On a more positive note, it is good to see an option to follow record labels. Record Club draws its data from the open-source music encyclopaedia MusicBrainz.
"We believe the world's music data should be open and accessible to everyone, not controlled by big commercial entities deciding what is or isn't on their platforms. MusicBrainz is not only the universal lingua franca for music — it's also completely crowd-sourced, just like Wikipedia," say the people behind the app.
Record Club also supports importing your listening history from Last.fm and Rate Your Music, as well as exporting your full library whenever you choose.
The goal is simple and it’s stated clearly on the website: “By focusing on a community-driven approach, Record Club helps you uncover new and old music through recommendations and reviews from real people. Our goal? To make music discovery personal, meaningful, and fun again.”
