State of the app address #1

This is the first in an occasional series for those who have downloaded The Vinyl District’s Record Store Locator app. It’s our chance to update you on where we’re at, and where we’ll be headed. 
 
In just over a month since we launched, over 11,000 of you have downloaded the app, and hopefully have taken it for a test drive. We’d like to thank each and everyone of you for giving it a shot. I’d especially like to thank our developer, Shoutem, for being so supportive.

To bring everyone up to date, we now have stores listed in eleven countries: Australia (77), Belgium (32), Canada (52), Germany (107), Ireland (9), Italy (5), Sweden (11), Switzerland (10), Turkey (2), United Kingdom (over 350), and of course the United States (over 1200). The great thing is that everyone has helped. And we’re far from finished. We’ve received emails from people all over the globe letting us know about stores that need to be listed, and stores that are no longer in business. Should you need to contact us with any news about any record stores, you can always reach us at info[@]thevinyldistrict.com or on our app Facebook page.


The online press has been surprisingly receptive as well. Many thanks to NPR’s All Songs Considered blog, MTV Hive, Pitchfork, the AV Club in several cities, the Washington City Paper, The Daily Swarm, Dangerous Minds, Digital Music News, This Isn’t Happiness, Blurt, Business Insider, The Quietus, Amoeba Records, Caught By The River, and the BBC’s 6 Music. And of course, there was yesterday's news about Mojo magazine. It’s been flattering and encouraging to say the least.



What are we working on to improve the app?

We’re adding stores just about everyday. We add them almost as fast as you email us. In the bigger picture, by far the biggest request has been for a better search mechanism. I’ll take this opportunity to remind everyone—this is a geo-location app. That’s what it’s designed to do. However, we agree with everyone. We’d like to see a better search mechanism as well. I can’t say how long this will take, but we are working on it.

Finally, this week we’ve be launched a new section on the app—an event calendar for record shows. This will be a work in progress, and will initially be US only, although we’ll eventually branch out to everywhere else. The calendar will be hosted courtesy of RecordShows.net.
So to wrap up, thank you from the bottom of our black vinyl hearts. Or red, if you prefer colored vinyl.

Lastly, we’d like to ask that you review the app in the store from where you downloaded – be it iTunes or the Android Marketplace. The reviews help in many, many ways.

Contact us: info [at] thevinyldistrict [dot] com or on Facebook. A very slightly different of this article previously ran on The Vinyl District two days ago.