Shelf Review

Shelf is a social app from Koodos, Inc. (Koodos Labs), a New York-based company. Per its App Store description, it connects Spotify, Netflix, Apple Music, Letterboxd, Goodreads and other services and builds one profile of what you watch, read, listen to and play.

TechCrunch (21 Sep 2024) reported that Shelf launched publicly in summer 2024 after beta testing in late 2023. Founder Jad Esber said data sharing runs on a technology called DataMover, which lets users grant other apps access to their data. The article says Koodos had raised $7 million in total from investors including First Round Capital, M13, Blockchain Capital and IDEO.

Main features are weekly and monthly recaps, top artists and genres, taste comparisons, profile customisation and friends' Shelves. On pricing, the US App Store lists the app as free with in-app purchases, the only item being Weekly Insight at $0.99. We found no official pricing page; TechCrunch reported that Koodos planned to offer new customisation options and might monetise the insights the app surfaces.

Because Shelf reads data from several accounts, its privacy terms deserve a close look. The App Store says profiles are private by default and you choose which services to connect and what is visible. Shelf's policy says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, but also allows sharing with service providers (including AI providers) and creating aggregated, de-identified data to study trends. Weigh that before connecting if you want your listening, viewing and reading history kept private.