Brum SoundTracks
Discover Brum SoundTracks, the new augmented reality app exploring Birmingham’s rich music heritage through walking tours, archive material, and immersive storytelling with Jez Collins and Birmingham Music Archive.
Download the app
Brum SoundTracks is available now on iOS and Android.
Birmingham’s music history, in your pocket
Brum SoundTracks is a new location-based app that brings Birmingham’s rich musical heritage to life through self-guided walking tours, archive material, and augmented reality experiences.
Created in partnership with BOM (Birmingham Open Media), the app lets you explore the city through the stories, venues, artists, and scenes that shaped Birmingham’s globally influential music culture.
At the centre of the experience is Birmingham Music Archive Founder/Director, Jez Collins, who appears throughout the app (in many guises!) as your guide to the city’s musical past and present.
Explore Birmingham through music
From heavy metal and reggae to bhangra, punk, jazz, folk, indie, electronic music, and beyond, Brum SoundTracks helps uncover the people, places, and communities that built Birmingham’s unique sound.
Using the app, you can:
- Follow curated music trails across Birmingham
- Discover iconic venues and hidden music landmarks
- Unlock archive photographs, posters, and stories on location
- Explore by genre, artist, or area of the city
- Experience augmented reality content featuring our own Jez Collins
- Listen to specially curated Birmingham playlists and soundtracks
Whether you are a lifelong Brummie, a music fan visiting the city, or someone curious about Birmingham’s cultural history, Brum SoundTracks offers a new way to experience the city.
A guide like no other!
For years, Birmingham Music Archive has documented, celebrated, and preserved the city’s music heritage.
Brum SoundTracks builds on that work by placing those stories directly into the streets and spaces where Birmingham’s music history happened.
Throughout the app, Jez appears as your pocket tour guide, introducing venues, sharing stories, and connecting Birmingham’s musical past to the present day.
“Birmingham’s music history is everywhere. Brum SoundTracks helps people experience those stories where they actually happened.”
Filmed using BOM’s virtual production and immersive technology facilities, the AR experiences create an engaging and accessible way to discover Birmingham’s music culture at locations across the city.
A collaboration between Birmingham Music Archive and BOM
Brum SoundTracks has been developed by BOM (Birmingham Open Media) in collaboration with Birmingham Music Archive.
The project combines BMA’s extensive archive and deep knowledge of Birmingham’s music culture with BOM’s expertise in immersive technology, digital storytelling, and augmented reality.
“This project combines archive, storytelling, technology, and place to celebrate Birmingham’s musical identity in a new way.”
Together, the project aims to make Birmingham’s music history more visible, accessible, and engaging for audiences of all ages.
Funding
The Brum SoundTracks app has been developed by BOM in collaboration with Birmingham Music Archive. The 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