Riley Walz created the Bop Spotter: an inconspicious gadget running Shazam and surveilling the musical tastes of passers-by in San Franciso. Think "Shot Spotter" but for culture, writes Riley.
I installed a box high up on a pole somewhere in the Mission of San Francisco. Inside is a crappy Android phone, set to Shazam constantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's solar powered, and the mic is pointed down at the street below. Heard of Shot Spotter? Microphones are installed across cities across the United States by police to detect gunshots, purported to not be very accurate. This is that, but for music. This is culture surveillance. No one notices, no one consents. But it's not about catching criminals. It's about catching vibes. A constant feed of what's popping off in real-time.
Sunday evening's picks include Mambo No. 5 (A little Bit Of…) by Lou Bega, Shakira's Hip's Dont Lie, and Celebration by Kool & The Gang. I would say it's the same old boomer loop with lovely new tech, but all those are absolutely fine bops. At the time of writing, the Bop Spotter is at 86% battery capacity.
Total Shazams ever detected: 236. That's an average of 236 songs per day.
Battery currently at 86% (a decrease of 6% in the last 4 hours). Last ping was 10 minutes ago (less than 10 minutes ago is good).
Download a CSV of all Shazam results ever.
Shoutout to Nikhil, Raffi and Shihao for advice/help building this! And thanks to MSCHF for design inspiration.
