New music app too awkward for everyday use

Would you use an app that lets you know who else in your building likes the music that you do? The idea sounds a little creepy. Imagine walking up to a complete stranger and saying “I noticed you like Band of Horses too!”

Yet, sonar.me is a new app that lets music fans do just that. The application taps into users Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn accounts to generate an all-encompassing social networking experience. The various accounts create a database of all the users “likes” and then compares them to every other person in the same vicinity who is plugged into sonar.me.

After the app has located people around you who share similar interests, a feature prompts you to introduce yourself to the other party through a type of instant message.

Brett Martin, Sonar’s founder, released a statement about the product, saying “With one click, we give you a rank-ordered list of everyone at that venue and how you’re related to them. With your second click, we give you an overview of the person — who they are, how you’re connected to them, and what bands you both like. And with the third click, you can send a message to that person over public channels like Facebook or Twitter.”

The app seems a little off-kilter, and it’s hard to imagine fans can really get into something that seems so awkward. However, the bands and promotion companies might benefit from sonar.me more than the average person.

Band members, artists or publicity personnel will be able to tap into the Sonar network to see who’s at the show. After the show artists can talk directly to the fans and relate to their audience on a more personal level.

In an interview with Evolver.fm, Martin offered that “we can also tell you who liked the band before the show and who liked them afterwards, so you can say ‘Hey, we saw you at the show — did you have a good time?”

In essence, the app seems like a tool better fit for a promotional team than your everyday music fan. But, who knows. Social media is still developing, and sonar.me may be on to something exciting here.