They Might Be Giants (the app)

A different song every day! They Might Be Giants' official and totally free song app includes new Dial-A-Song tracks and songs from the band's vast catalog. The app holds five tracks at all times... More here.

I love the personality in the design of this app and the fact that the number of tracks available at any one time is limited. I also love the band, have for decades, and the way this app continues the Dial-A-Song service that was legendary, in TMBG circles 23 years.

Dial-A-Song is a telephone service operated by John Linnell and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants that originally ran from 1983 to 2006. It returned in a new form for the years of 2015 and 2018. The service was originally available as "a regular phone call to Brooklyn", at the number (718) 387-6962. Dial-A-Song consisted of an answering machine, which would pick up calls and play back a song in the place of an outgoing message. The model of answering machine employed changed throughout Dial-A-Song's tenure, but most machines played back the message via a cassette tape. This system made it easy for the Johns to record demos, jingles, or even previews of studio tracks (often with a spoken message by John Flansburgh at the end) onto cassettes and then queue them into the machine. Dial-A-Song was updated often, although many tracks stayed in rotation for a while after their initial appearances... More here.