A new app called Trebel Music seeks to change the way young people access music. At first glance, it seems similar to the free versions of Spotify or Pandora – users gain access to free music and pay for it by watching ads. However, Trebel comes with a twist.
“We compete with torrent sites,” said Gary Mekikian, CEO of M&M Media, the company that created Trebel Music. “Trebel is not a streaming service … We’re not a radio service. We are a download and play service.”
Free music downloads? Can this get me in trebel?
With Trebel, a user can download any song from the app’s catalog and then play that song without streaming. This way, users have the freedom to play whatever songs they want but without having to pay a fee. In this way, Trebel Music mirrors torrent sites, but with Trebel, the artists are compensated for their work.
Trebel pays artists by filling the app with advertisements. Every time you see or watch an advertisement, you gain digital currency that lets you listen to the songs you’ve downloaded. This digital currency is what helps pay the artists for their music.
Mekikian views Trebel as a solution to a problem. Because most young people are not yet earning a large income, Mekikian says they are more drawn to download music illegally. However, when this happens, artists are not compensated for their work.
Trebel does not intend to be a replacement for buying music, but instead, a solution for students and other young people who can’t afford to buy music or pay for premium services.
“Those young people who can afford to pay for… premium services absolutely should,” Mekikian said.
The app was released this month on Android and iOS for college students, and will be available nationwide after further testing.
The Review
3.5/5 stars
Overall, my experience with Trebel Music was positive but certainly not flawless. The app’s unique concept allows users free play without wasting part of an expensive data plan or waiting to buffer. While using the app, though, it felt as though more effort had been put into social and cosmetic features than the app’s actual selling point.
With that being said, these social and cosmetic features work well to improve the user experience.
The app’s most iconic feature is that when you play a song, the album’s cover-art spins around like a record. You can even interact with the virtual record by spinning it forward to skip ahead in the song, or spinning it backward to rewind.
This feature is effective, but it would have been nice to have more interactivity. On a real record, you hear a certain sound effect when you spin the vinyl manually. The app’s lack of this sound makes it feel as though something is missing, but such a small detail is also forgivable.
In addition, Trebel Music automatically generates a new color scheme based off of any album art, and a simple shake of your phone will save that color scheme to your settings.
This is one of my favorite features, because it helps me feel more attached to the app. When I open Trebel and see the color scheme from Benjamin Gibbard’s “Former Lives,” I know that the app is customized to my musical taste.
In terms of social features, Trebel takes a note from Spotify. You can share playlists with your friends and even send each other virtual currency.
Trebel then takes the social atmosphere a step further, connecting you with your classmates. College students can see the top songs played and downloaded at their school.
Despite these perks, it is clear that Trebel still needs polishing.
The app works well most of the time, but occasionally it runs into an error where clicking on one song plays another song instead. I also kept running into the issue that when listening to a playlist, the song would pause at the end rather than continuing to the next song.
And, like every new app, you expect to see some crashes.
I still prefer my phone’s stock music app for playing music I’ve paid for, but Trebel is nice for albums I don’t want to drop money on.
However, one has to keep in mind that Trebel is a new app, and many of its current problems will likely be resolved in the future. Bugs are common in any new software, but Trebel’s concept and design make it worth the download.
The app is free to download and gives users credits to download albums from watching advertisements. The app aims to mirror torrenting services while still compensating the artist.
