Get Location Based Soundtracks With Guardian Streetstories

Zach Davis Mar 25, 2012 Tweet

You’ve built out a series of highly mood-dependent and situational music playlists.  You have one for the gym, and you have separate ones for when you’re happy, sad, angry, drunk, and reflective.  You’ve got one for when it’s raining.  There’s another for Spring Break 2003 (“two trailer park girls go ’round the outside, ’round the…”).  But how about your location?

This is what the new Guardian’s Streetstories App does.  If you’re in London.  King’s Cross, London.

By pulling your GPS coordinates, the Streetstories app will play relevant music and stories based on your specific location.  Right now, the app is specific only to King’s Cross, but if the new Guardian app is able to gain traction, look for the audible augmented reality premise to be duplicated in other cities in the near future.

Hear stories of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy childhood, the in-depth descriptions of cattle marching down the road from Caledonian market (formerly Europe’s largest cattle market), and the historical context of the region’s recent influx of art and nightlife.  Users don’t have to walk any specific route to coordinate the audio of the application.  Each unique route creates a unique narrative.

In total, the app offers more than seventy stories on the extended iPhone version and a shorter ten-story version for both the iPhone and Android (all free).

Streetstories is powered by the AppFurnance platform, a creation of the Bristol, UK based Calvium.  AppFurnance has also been used to build apps for several other London-based projects including, Royal Shakespeare Company, SOHO Theatre, and the University of West England.