"A mic on the street that Shazams 24/7"

September 30, 2024 11:56 AM

Bop Spotter "This is culture surveillance. No one notices, no one consents. But it's not about catching criminals. It's about catching vibes. A constant feed of what’s popping off in real-time."
posted by jessamyn (27 comments total)

Bullying people who blast audio too loudly is not a crime.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:00 PM on September 30 [4 favorites]

I love this. It sounds like it's in a bar or somewhere else that's active 24/7.
posted by chavenet at 12:12 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

This is what the web is for
posted by klangklangston at 12:22 PM on September 30 [5 favorites]

I think this is neat.

Perhaps this is a sign of the times where we can no longer believe what we see or hear, I also wonder if it is real. It would be easier to create a site that randomly plays portions of songs from a pre-defined playlist at random intervals with generic street noise overlayed on top. But I'm just going to believe this is real because it would be neat, if true.
posted by scottatdrake at 12:24 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

based on the other stuff Riley has made, this seems like a thing they could accomplish. Also I just watched the battery level jump!
posted by jessamyn at 12:39 PM on September 30 [2 favorites]

9am on a Monday morning might be a touch early in the day for "Me So Horny."
posted by ikahime at 12:46 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

Total Shazams ever detected: 257. That's an average of 123.4 songs per day.

1-2-3 o'clock, (point) 4 o'clock rock.
posted by The Bellman at 12:48 PM on September 30 [7 favorites]

Not one Swift song played in 2 days. I need to move there.
posted by hairless ape at 12:49 PM on September 30

I want a whole network of these. Like Radio Garden but for random street corners. It would be so interesting to compare the soundtracks of neighborhoods.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:58 PM on September 30 [6 favorites]

This is so cool. I get regular Shot Spotter-based text alerts on my phone, and I can't tell you how much it would improve my mood to get counterbalancing andom text alerts from a Bop Spotter, letting me know that it's 8:52 and "Rapper's Delight" is playing right now, somewhere.
posted by cupcakeninja at 1:11 PM on September 30 [6 favorites]

This is cool, thanks for posting it!
posted by tiny frying pan at 1:26 PM on September 30

9 a.m. is so early for "Me So Horny."
posted by poseur at 1:59 PM on September 30 [2 favorites]

This is really neat.

Every so often someone goes by with the volume cranked up but somehow not the bass and it's really wonderful, even if they're not playing anything by Journey. Motorcycles in particular seem to have soundsystems which don't suck if you're anywhere other than the drivers' seat.

It's kind of sad that the fidelity of loud music is so relentlessly terrible that anything which comes through clear is appreciated.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:02 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

I love this. This is basically what I do manually when I hear music outside in my neighborhood.
posted by limeonaire at 2:14 PM on September 30

This is a wild mix:

No Hago Coro
God Bless The U.S.A.
Memories by Maroon 5 (not the good one)
The Man by Conci's Unconscious Daydream. --> It has 246 views of YouTube. This has to be a mistake or Mr Conci knows where the speaker is, and the system has already been hacked.

Not one Swift song played in 2 days. I need to move there.
Ha. You spoke too soon.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:28 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

Heh, I saw the title of this post and assumed some music industry arsehole had set something up to capture (and, I presumed, punish in some way) unauthorised broadcasts of songs. I'm very glad to be wrong and this project is one I can wholeheartedly approve of in every possible way.
posted by dg at 4:09 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

Their 9am is *late*, my friends.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 5:46 PM on September 30 [3 favorites]

The first paragraph is a spot on description of my five years of life living in a 2nd floor apartment on Mission St. All my playlists were just my shazams. I had to get good at walking close to cars without drawing any weird looks or aggression.
posted by abcanthur at 6:38 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

9 a.m. is so early for "Me So Horny."
posted by poseur

I don't know, I've been horny before 9 a.m.!
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:29 PM on September 30 [2 favorites]

9 am is a little late for morning wood, but I don't judge people for their sleeping hours.
posted by dg at 9:26 PM on September 30

I don't have morning wood though. But would listen to Me So Horny in the morning.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:44 PM on September 30

It’s all fun and games until the town in Footloose gets hold of this tech.
posted by credulous at 10:40 PM on September 30 [1 favorite]

Ironic that someone was rocking out to Rick Astley at 12:36am on a Tuesday morning (10/1) since YouTube finally took the original RickRoll video down after like 1.5 BILLION views.
posted by anotherpanacea at 2:37 AM on October 1

There was a post about that on X: As of 12:30am PST I have located the Box and successfully executed a Rickroll Injection Attack on the target system. Out of respect for the artist I will not be revealing the Box's location, but for any veteran Mission resident only a couple obvious locations exist.
posted by jessamyn at 9:40 AM on October 1 [4 favorites]

Mod note: We put a link to this post in the sidebar and Best Of blog, so everyone can find what's poppin'!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:55 AM on October 2

Ironic that someone was rocking out to Rick Astley at 12:36am on a Tuesday morning (10/1) since YouTube finally took the original RickRoll video down after like 1.5 BILLION views .

RickRolling is not a victimless crime.
posted by gtrwolf at 8:54 PM on October 2 [2 favorites]

Article in Mission Local:

"Just after midnight, Vincent Woo, a Mission resident ..., found and “Rickrolled” the box, playing “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. Bop Spotter’s description and the street noise he heard in its recording provided all the clues he needed, Woo told Mission Local. "
posted by gingerbeer at 1:50 PM on October 3 [4 favorites]