"Spotify," who? "Apple Music."who?
"Shiri" the new wave?
Ok, so everyone has that go to music app on their, phone, laptop, or tablet, or whatever you use to stream music. It’s either Spotify which is very popular, Apple music for all of our Apple product lovers, youtube music for our fantastic streamers, and etc. Well, Isreal recently said forget all of those apps we are making our own for our culture and music. Recently in early February, the Isreali government released a new music streaming app called “Shiri.” The app has already uploaded 40,000 Isreali songs, with many more to follow in the near future. The app was developed by the Culture and Sport Ministry, along with the National Library of Israel and a nonprofit organization called “Finjan.”
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The Home page and Basic setup of the app! |
The app is made open to the general public and ad-free with the goals of conserving and preserving Isreali music throughout the generations. Also, unlike other mainstream music app users are allowed to skip as many songs as they want without limitations. This app is also providing more profit for artists than any other music streaming devices. Once downloaded the app allows you to select three of your favorite artists and then it allows you to thumbs up for a like and thumbs down for a dislike and as you continue to use the app for streaming music the app adjust to your style and taste in music and makes suggestion based upon your likes and favorite artists. However, the entire app is in Hebrews which is great for the artists and Israeli culture but sad for all of our international fans of the artist out there.
This is a really cool part of Israeli culture that seems to celebrate Israeli artists and styles of music. Music is so universal and can often appeal to many different types of people, but for centuries now music has also been used to unite a group and to bring a community together. Clearly, this new app Shiri is able to promote music from Israel to its citizens. The fact that the artists receive better compensation than other music apps like Spotify is very exciting because it gives more credit where credit is due. I hope that overtime Shiri could incorporate multiple languages into the app so that other users across the world could experience solely Israeli music if it is in languages other than Hebrew. I think this would be a great way to promote Israeli culture and talent elsewhere around the world.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Israel has created its own streaming service for the purpose of promoting and preserving Israeli music is very on brand for the country as a whole. The creation and use of Shiri is arguably another tool Israel will use to further cement its place culturally in the Middle East. On a less political note, I do believe that the creation of a new streaming service for the purpose you described is a very cool notion, and it would be interesting to see other countries and cultures do something similar - perhaps with creating a system to preserve and promote oral literature!
ReplyDeleteCelebrating one's culture is essential to maintaining a personal, ethnic, and national identity- and that is exactly was Israel has done with the creation of "Shiri." By providing a platform for Israeli art and artists, it allows the people of Israel to continue to maintain their own sound and not be drowned out by all of the noise from the rest of the world. Shiri was created as a space for the people of Israel to connect to each other and the characteristics of their language, culture, heritage, etc. It even allows for other cultures to learn more about Israeli culture, like I'm sure we all did by reading this blog post, thus promoting cultural literacy and tolerance across the world. How cool!
ReplyDeleteConserving a culture is a battle some countries and cultures face everyday. I think this app is a very effective way to introduce younger generations to the Israeli culture and continue the songs of the culture into the younger people, as well as giving older generations an accessible way to access the songs of their own culture. I think it is a also very important for the younger generations to embrace their own culture through music instead of being only exposed to Americanized apps like Apple Music and Spotify. This streaming service is a big step to promote and encourage Israeli artists because they are compensated more for their music than the other major apps. Overall, I found this article very interesting and I really liked reading about the steps some countries are taking in order to preserve their own culture.
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