Brum SoundTracks
Introducing Brum SoundTracks. A location-based augmented reality app that brings Birmingham's iconic musical heritage to life.
Bringing Birmingham's music heritage to life
Brum SoundTracks is your guide to Birmingham’s vibrant music scene, offering self-guided walking tours across the city. Explore 33 iconic venues through fascinating facts, photographs and archive material. From the birthplace of heavy metal to the roots of Black music culture, discover where legendary performances once took place, alongside grassroots venues that continue to thrive as hubs for new music.
Developing Brum SoundTracks
Brum SoundTracks is the next phase of our Brum AR prototype. The original prototype offered visitors an immersive journey through Birmingham’s key music landmarks, and we were thrilled when additional funding enabled BOM and Jez Collins (Birmingham Music Archive) to develop it further. New updates include the brand new name, which better represents the app, alongside an updated look and experience. We’re very excited about its initial release, with further updates coming soon.
What's New?
We commissioned local designer, Luke Tonge to design a distinctive visual identity with a bold new logo. The logo incorporates earphone elements, which subtly reflect the app’s focus on Birmingham’s musical heritage. He also devised a new colour palette, which BOM’s Immersive Studio integrated throughout the app to create a consistent and visually engaging user experience.
Brum SoundTracks has also been redeveloped and designed for music lovers who are curious about Birmingham’s unique and diverse music history. Whether you’re new to the city or a proud Brummie keen to learn about the city’s music heritage, it provides a great starting place to discover Birmingham’s music scene.
Guiding the Way
The project is driven by Jez Collins from Birmingham Music Archive, bringing his deep knowledge of the city’s rich musical heritage and cultural identity and experience leading walking tours and merging it with BOM’s talented Immersive Studio team. We knew we wanted to incorporate Jez into the app and include him in the AR content.
We invited Jez into our Virtual Production Suite to begin filming introductions to the venues featured so far. These now form part of the app’s interactive AR experience, and just like on a real tour, he appears at each venue. You’ll notice that Jez is dressed to match the venue, from a battle jacket outside the Black Sabbath bench to a top hat and tailcoat at Symphony Hall.
Trails and Music
Not only is Jez your pocket tour guide, sharing stories, insights and the history of each venue, the app also lets you explore in a way that suits you.
Whether you’d like to explore by music genre or your favourite bands, follow a curated trail, or simply discover venues near you. The choice is yours. Tap through to each location and discover archive material, photographs and gig posters, showcasing some of the legendary musical acts that have played in our city.
Looking for more music inspiration? You’ll also find a specially curated soundtrack of Birmingham artists, ready to enjoy and accessed via the app.
Available on on iOS and Android
Brum SoundTracks is now available to download on the App Store and Google Play. We’re excited for people to discover more about Brum’s music spots and try out the app during this initial release. We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on your experience so we can improve it further.
Funding
Brum SoundTracks is an app by BOM (Birmingham Open Media). Brum SoundTracks has been developed by BOM in collaboration with Jez Collins from Birmingham Music Archive.
This project is funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus