Airbuds is the most fun I’ve had with social media since the invention of social media. 

If you’ve never heard of the music-sharing app, allow me to explain. This app connects to your music provider, currently only Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. It then tracks your listening and reports it back to your friends. 

Basically, your friends can see what you’re listening to at any given time. You can react to the songs your friends are playing and have conversations about artists and songs. 

One of my favorite parts of the app is the question section. You can prompt your friends with a question and they can respond to it with a song. As someone who is always on the lookout for new music, this is extremely fun. 

I also love the recap feature at the end of each day. I get to see what my friends were listening to and what they had on repeat. 

It’s fun taking a moment to scroll on the app throughout the day to see what my friends are listening to. It’s easy to get an idea of how someone is feeling based on their current musical rotation. 

Airbuds is super user-friendly and free. They don’t have any features you have to pay for which is super rare for any kind of app. It also has yet to be infected with ads, which is refreshing. 

This app has connected me to people I would have never expected to talk to again. 

This previous summer, I was working as a barista, and I took over my favorite task while working: being on aux. About 20 minutes later, a group of three was heading for the door but stopped to ask what song was playing, and we ended up in a very long conversation about TV Girl. 

One person from the group asked me if I knew about Airbuds because he wanted to look at the other songs I had been playing, and I got three new friends on the app. 

Now, I interact with these coffee-shop-music-lovers with the occasional reaction on Airbuds. I have also stolen some truly great music from them, so I count that as a win. 

I also love that this app makes a little weekly recap for the user. I get a little “Top 5 Songs” and “Top 5 Artists” of the week every Sunday night. 

As a stressed-out college student, sometimes it’s the little things that bring me joy. 

However, sometimes this app can embarrass me when I am listening to the full “Star Wars Revenge of The Sith” score to finish a last-minute essay, or if I listen to a little too much of one artist, such as my recent 500 minutes of David Bowie in one week. 

We all have some embarrassing music listening tendencies, and it’s fun to see my own and my friends’. I also love the opportunity to create a community around a love for sharing music. 

There is so much music out there and this app is a great way to connect to music I would have never heard otherwise. 

Freeman can be reached at [email protected].