SoundTracking 2.0 For iOS 5 @ Mentions The Artist When You Share A Song

Alexia Tsotsis currently works for TechCrunch as a writer. She is also a blogger who attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. She majored in Writing and Art, moving to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the Entertainment/Media industry. After four years of living in New York City and attending courses at New York... ? Learn More

Musical moment sharing app SoundTracking joins eight other featured apps in the Apple App Store today, highlighting its deep iOS 5 Twitter integration alongside those of Instagram and Flipboard.

The new SoundTracking for iOS 5 has the usual suspects in terms of Twitter integration, letting users automatically log in and customize their SoundTracking tweets (like taking out the hashtag #soundtracking for example) using the new and nifty Tweet Sheet feature.

In addition to the basic Twitter for iOS stuff and a streamlined UI (and a “glossy wood soundtrack button”), SoundTracking 2.0 also lets you post songs to a Facebook fan page, which means that the multiple admins of something like a brand’s or an artist’s page can now soundtrack.

What’s more interesting than the new Facebook integration, auth and customization features however, is that SoundTracking 2.0 allows you to follow the artists you listen to on Twitter from within the app — giving you the option to follow @Beyonce for example, after you’ve soundtracked one of her songs. In addition, SoundTracking automatically @ mentions a given artist when a user tweets a soundtrack, if that artist is on Twitter that is.

This feature alone could mean a lot for SoundTracking’s scale, bringing the app, which just surpassed 750K downloads after seven months, into the awareness of musicians with massive Twitter followings like @ladyGaga and @KanyeWest. At the very least the automatic @ mentions are a simple but brilliant way to facilitate a connection between fans and artists.

Schematic Labs co-founder Steve Jang tells me that these deeper integrations are fitting because SoundTracking users can’t seem to get enough of Twitter (the app is currently the most tweeted about musical service, he says).

Jang plans on further expanding SoundTracking’s social features and is looking into other APIs which is exciting — I would love it if Spotify users could listen to an entire song in-app or add songs from SoundTracking to Spotify for further listening down the line.

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Android And Apple Now Command Nearly 70 Percent Of U.S. Smartphone Market Share

Erick Schonfeld currently works at TechCrunch as Co-Editor. He joined in 2007 and is based in New York. Schonfeld oversees the editorial content of the site, selects and edits guest posts, helps to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produces some TCTV shows, and writes daily for the blog. He is also the father of three... ? Learn More

Android and Apple together now account for nearly 70 percent of smartphone subscribers in the U.S., according to new estimates for July put out today by comScore. Android phones command nearly 42 percent market share, while Apple’s iPhone grew slightly to capture 27 percent. Android is growing faster, up 5.4 percent from April and up 1.7 percent from June, whereas Apple’s share is up 1 percent for the three-month period and 0.4 percent fro the previous month.

The two smartphone powers keep taking share from RIM’s Blackberry, Microsoft, and Symbian. Blackberry took the biggest hit, down 4 points since April, 2011 to 21.7 percent. Microsoft’s mobile OS share is down 1 percent to 5.7 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers. And Symbian is barely hanging onto 1.9 percent share in the U.S.

In terms of how people are using their smartphones, text messaging still tops the activities with 70 percent of subscribers stating that they use their phones to text. Browsing and downloading apps come in next with about 41 percent of users doing those activities, which kind of makes you wonder what the other 60 percent are doing with their smartphones. People, these are like computers. Please use them accordingly. That means open those browsers and download some apps! Otherwise, get a flip phone.

Top Smartphone Platforms
3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Apr. 2011
Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLensShare (%) of Smartphone Subscribers

Android is a software platform for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed...

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iOS is Apple’s operating system for their mobile devices. It debuted in 2007 with the release of the first iPhone, but has since been extended for use with the...

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“comScore is a global Internet information provider to which leading companies turn for consumer behavior insight that drives successful marketing, sales and trading strategies. comScore’s experienced analysts work closely with...

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