Disconest is databasing the BPM, key, and time signature of every CD and record it has access to. A music nerd’s dream.
Like the sound of vinyl, but miss the precise data digital provides? Does the thought of multi-page threads about analog beat-matching techniques cause you indigestion?
Disconest is an app that’s set out to find the beats per minute, time signature, and key of every record in existence. The kind of thing DJs once had to laboriously tap out and record, probably, on the record sleeve. Now it’s just freely available and searchable, like everything else, soon, in our lives.
There are still gaps. The website uses the metadata gathered by The Echonest database and cross-references that information with records and CDs registered on Discogs. So an album like, say, The Life of Pablo, which was never released but for TIDAL (and if you believe Kanye West, never will be) lacks metadata and is thus unavailable. But if you’re more of a Yeezus person, one click and you know “New Slaves” is in D Major and “Bound 2” is 149 BPM.
At first, it seems like a cheap thrill. Or a technician’s tool. And then you realize you’ve spent the last 45 minutes inputting all your favorite songs to discover basically everything you’ve ever liked is essentially the same speed (or at least within a 20BPM range). I feel like I know myself better. Another piece of the puzzle that is me.
Thank you, Disconest.
