Right now (as in this very second) there’s a hidden microphone on a pole in the Mission that records bits of music heard below, then Shazam identifies the song and adds it to the Bop Spotter playlist—so wherever we are in the world, we can be part of the Mission’s soundscape. It’s a real-time capture of the tunes listened to in the Mission, as first reported by SF Gate.
So what exactly is Bop Spotter? It’s a playlist created by Riley Walz, who writes on his website, “I installed a box high up on a pole somewhere in the Mission of San Francisco. Inside is a crappy Android phone, set to Shazam constantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s solar powered and the mic is pointed at the street below.” Walz told SF GATE that he spent several hours looking for the right place to plant the mic, so that it got enough sun exposure for the solar power to work, and so that it could eavesdrop well enough for Shazam to start cataloging what it heard.
Walz’s website says that he was inspired by ShotSpotter, the microphones set up by law enforcement to capture the sound gunshots. “This is that, but for music. This is culture surveillance. No one notices, no one consents. But it’s not about catching criminals. It’s about catching vibes.”
I installed a box high up on a pole somewhere in the Mission. Inside is a crappy Android phone, set to Shazam constantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's solar powered, and the mic is pointed down at the street below https://t.co/8D4yYNBPgu pic.twitter.com/pyYzUltJQX
— Riley (@rtwlz) September 30, 2024
When contacted by Time Out, Walz declined to share a photo of the Bob Spotter, preferring to “keep the mystique of the box.” Also, in case you’re wondering, he says he’s not related to the vice presidential candidate, but, “My father is, believe it or not, named Tim Walz, but not that Tim Walz, haha.”
When asked if he finds himself compelled to stand under the mic with his own tunes blasting to see if his choices get captured, he says, “No, because I know it works well.”
On Twitter today, Walz proposed bringing the Bop Spotter to 10 other cities, including Oakland, London, New York and Boston, asking for $2,000 to fund it… which he received within an hour. He tweeted, “and DONE! crazy that you can just ask for money… and get it? in like an hour?”
While writing this story, the Bop Spotter had captured “Una en un Million” by Alexis y Fido, “Someday” (feat. Mandrazo) by Pop Mage and “Perdidos (En Vivo)” by Nelson Velásquez in a roughly 40-minute period. You have the option to open these songs up in Spotify or Apple Music or just press play on the website. You’ll hear the same snatch of music the microphone caught, along with bus brakes squeaking, people chatting and car horns honking. Many of the songs on Bop Spotter are by Latino artists, which should be no surprise since the Mission is a traditionally Mexican neighborhood along with a smaller Nicaraguan, Salvadoran and Guatemalan population.
Walz says of the San Francisco Bop Spotter, “Hopefully this box is up years, and it’ll be cool to see how the genres and artists progress over time!”