Soundwave, The Music Discovery App Backed By Mark Cuban, Is Placing A Big Bet On Big Data

What happens when your app manages to attract Woz as a fan, Mark Cuban as an investor, Stephen Fry to help launch, and you’re featured by Apple and Google in its respective app stores?

A shed load of downloads, that’s what.

In the case of Dublin-based Soundwave, the music discovery app that tracks the listening habits of you, your friends and other users you follow, we’re talking over 165,000 downloads in just shy of two-and-a-half weeks. However, perhaps the more interesting story is what the startup could do with all of the listening data its amassing should that traction continue.

First, though, let’s delve into the stats some more. Along with number of downloads, the iOS and Android app, which is able to track what you’re listening to on your phone’s native music player, as well as streaming services Spotify and Rdio, has tracked 3 million song plays. That figure gives us a good indication of actual usage and is one that Soundwave will be expecting to grow significantly if its app is to make it past the download and use-once hurdle.

Meanwhile, those app downloads span 182 countries, with its biggest market so far being the U.S., followed by the U.K., Brazil, Ireland, Russia and Germany. Notably, both Apple and Google have featured the app — the iOS version 443 times across 17 App Store categories in 144 countries since launch — including Apple making Soundwave the much coveted ‘Editors Choice.’ So it shouldn’t be surprising to see some decent traction.