Snoop Lion App: iPad App Delves Deeper Into The Rebirth Of Snoop Dogg

Snoop Lion (formerly "Snoop Dogg") has released an iPad app to coincide with his religious awakening and conversion to Rastafarianism. (Yes, that sentence just happened.)

The app is meant as companion to the upcoming Snoop Lion documentary and reggae album, both of which are titled Reincarnated.

The Snoop Lion's Reincarnated: Track Notes App is a free app from digital publishing company Citia. This is Citia's first foray into music and they hope that what they're pushing (essentially an updated digital version of liner notes that come with outdated physical music mediums) will catch on. The details section of the app store explains:

"What you get isn't just the music - it's ABOUT the music," "Where it came from, How it was made, WHY it was made. It's liner notes for the 21st century. Multimedia, multi-sensory, made for the fans."

The Snoop Lion app currently contains three songs. Each song gets its own lyric video, quotes from the producers and collaborators and information on the reggae songs that inspired Snoop to make the song (these, of course, link to iTunes store versions of the tracks).

The app also pushes Snoop Lion merchandise including t-shirts, slippers and, yes, grinders.

Fans are encouraged to register for app updates, so that they know when all of the songs are available to experience. Presumably they will have to buy these new songs.

Snoop isn't the first to experiment with app-centric ways of releasing music. Bjork released the first ever app album in 2011 titled Biophilia and Lady Gaga is promising a massive ARTPOP app to coincide with her new album of the same name.

Apps are, in their own way, the music industry's attempt at a reincarnation. Much in the same way Snoop Dogg is trying to be reborn as Snoop Lion, the record labels hope that they can find a new way of operating and stop the hemorrhaging of money from declining sales in the digital age.