Listening to music is fun. Knowing all about your favorite musicians is even more fun. After all, rock stars grace the pages of newspapers and magazines nearly every week. Reading about a rock star who’s music doesn’t interest you can be boring, but reading about the life of a musician you love is downright interesting.

Bandito is a new app developed by The Echo Nest and the Public Radio Exchange. This app lets you know about upcoming shows, band news, musician interviews, and lots of other stuff. The best part is that Bandito only bothers you with music news when it concerns a musician that you actually care about.

How Bandito Works

So, how does Bandito know whether or not you love or hate Britney Spears? Bandito scans and searches your iTunes library in order to find out what kind of music you listen to. Once this information has been gathered, the app searches headlines daily. Any time a musician that you love makes news, Bandito will let you know.

This app brings a whole different dimension to the music scene. There’s no more need to second guess upcoming shows or learn about band break-ups. As soon as there’s something worth reading, Bandito will let you know – without forcing you to sift through headlines about some washed up pop star that you could care less about.

Alternatives to Bandito

Why bother with the Bandito app when you can set up Google Alerts or subscribe to blog feeds? For one, Bandito doesn’t add half as much clutter to your inbox. For two, following music news on Twitter or trying to keep up with blog posts can be time consuming. Bandito sends you music news headlines based upon your interests, you can then skim these headlines and decide which stories you want to read, and which ones you can live without.

Sure, there are alternatives to Bandito, but this app makes finding out about music news simple, and isn’t that what an app should be all about? Since Bandito is a relatively new app, you can expect the developers of this app to add features and updates regularly. If Bandito sounds like a novel idea to you, make sure to download those updates when they pop up in your App Store notifications.

Cost and Details

Oh yeah, did I mention that Bandito is a free iPhone app? You can have all the great things that come with Bandito for free. All you have to do is head to the App Store and download the Bandito app. The app interface is basic, but it’s all you really need to know more about the music you crave.

Not only is Bandito a great app for anyone who loves music, it’s also ideal for those who spread music news. If you run a Twitter account that’s dedicated to music news and gig updates, Bandito will likely become your best friend. Not only will you be able to draw from your personal news sources, but you’ll have Bandito on your side just in case your sources miss something. In the end, it never hurts to collect all the music information that you can find.