Iphone Apps: Kicking Mobile Music Into Touch

Analysis

iPhone Apps: kicking mobile music into touch

Dave Haynes UK operations & business development, SoundCloud and Co-founder, OpenMusicMedia

Back in 2001 Apple launched iPod + iTunes. For better or for worse it revolutionised how we consumed, purchased and enjoyed music. A whole new ecosystem built up around the devices. Hardware manufacturers started building accessories specifically for the iPod and companies rushed to integrate iPod connections into their existing devices. For a cautious music industry the iTunes music store promised hope of a new digital market for music sales that had failed to ignite previously. Love it or hate it, the iPod was a game changer. Fast forward to 2007 and Apple have done it again with the iPhone and its little sister the iPod Touch. On 11th July, 2008, iTunes itself also moved beyond just music and video with the subsequent arrival of The App Store, allowing users to buy and download new software from third party developers to their iPhones. In fact over 500M apps have now been downloaded, equating to around 2.1M per day, with more than 15,000 apps available. Many of these are music apps. Although the changes are subtler and the implications for the music industry and consumers are different, Apple has instigated another paradigm shift for the way we consume and interact with music. New applications for music

There are now literally thousands of music-based applications for the iPhone that take the mobile device way beyond the traditional playback functions of the iPod and their users’ digital music collections. One such application pushing the boundaries is RjDj, a completely novel app that combines all the different functionalities of the iPhone and somehow creates a whole new musical genre. Users download different ‘scenes’ that take sensory inputs to generate and control the music you are listening to. Despite its mind-bending effects, the app quickly found success with iPhone users and was downloaded over 50,000 times in just its first 10 days on the iTunes App Store. Not bad for what is essentially a music album with no traditional artists. Michael Breidenbrucker, RjDj’s founder, is excited about the future, “the iPhone is the new Walkman but it now has so many things that Walkmans simply didn’t have before. It’s essentially a mobile computing device with a CPU, networking, wi-fi, 20 • FEBRUARY 2009 #87

speakers, microphone, networking, GPS and even accelerometer data.” All these different elements have created a rich platform that not only allows developers to make amazing music-based applications but also takes them onto every street and into the mainstream. Moving beyond the iTunes library

Streaming music apps like Last.fm and Pandora have also proved extremely popular, allowing listeners to move beyond their iTunes Music library and tap into an almost unlimited selection of music, streaming directly from the Internet. “It’s always been our argument that music consumption will move towards access rather than ownership,” states Last.fm’s Christian Ward, “the iPhone is the key device at the moment, certainly in terms of streaming music on the go. For us it’s part of a wider strategy of making Last.fm available wherever you need it to be, whether that’s on the go, in the car, at home, wherever”. With over 13M iPhones and many more iPod Touch’s sold to date it could be argued that it will be Apple, not streaming services like Napster or Rhapsody, that will truly bring cloud-based music consumption into the mainstream. Last.fm themselves have further plans for tapping into the potential of the iPhone. “Some of things that we really want to investigate and experiment with in the future are the events and geolocation stuff,” Christian explains, “It would be ideal to have a feature where you’d be walking past venues in London and your iPhone could tell you that one of your favourite bands was playing there in a couple of hours”. >> Continued on page 22

Beatmaker Beatmaker brings serious music creation to the iPhone. Priced at £11.99 it is one of the App Store’s more expensive applications but it packs a mean punch and has been installed by over 50,000 users. Beatmaker allows you to download different sounds, beats and instruments or record your own samples. The user can then trigger these samples, add effects and sequence them into a fully-fledged track. This powerful, portable solution allows producers to make beats on the go and then export them when they get home to the studio. It’s probably not a substitute for more

conventional tools, but is a great companion for when creativity strikes. The application really pushes the limits of what the iPhone can do and has already gained traction among amateur enthusiasts and professionals alike.

Last.fm Last.fm launched its official application for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 and has spent many weeks at the top of the music category charts in the App Store alongside apps such as Shazam and Pandora. The app takes the Last.fm experience away from your PC to wherever you need it, whether that’s on the go, in the car or your home’s speaker dock. Now on version 2 and with future iterations coming soon the application allows you to stream music, perform the familiar Last.fm contextual items (love, ban, skip, tag) as well as scrobble.You can even check current events for now playing artists and go directly to a Google map for the event location. The only drawback is not being able to use the app in the background whilst using other functions of your iPhone.

RjDJ RJDJ stands for ‘Reality Jockey, as much as Disc Jockey’. It is an interactive music app that uses sensory inputs to generate and control the music you are listening to, creating a new music genre that is best described as ‘reactive music’. Users can download different ‘scenes’ that react in different ways. Some playback audio based on the audio inputs coming through the iPhone’s speakers and others manipulate that audio based on accelerometer data (eg. how you move the iPhone device). Founded by Michael Breidenbrucker, one of the original Last.fm co-founders, RJDJ was an early success on the iTunes app store with just 50,000 downloads in 10 days, a figure which has risen to 150,000 in recent months. Popular scenes include ‘Echolon’ which takes sound input and pitches and shifts it in different ways and ‘Amenshake’ which uses the accelerometer to play twist and playback the infamous ‘Amen’ drum break.

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Tap Tap Revenge Tap Tap Revenge was the first app to unleash music gaming onto the iPhone turning the device into a fully-fledged finger-tapping Guitar Hero-like frenzy. Starting life as Tap Tap Revolution it was originally only available on jailbroken phones. Six months later and the game is reportedly the third most popular app on iTunes (behind Facebook and Pandora) with over 5M unique installs. During that time it has launched various different themed premium apps with licensed content from Nine Inch Nails and Weezer as well as the recent Tap Tap Dance that includes material from dance acts such as The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx. The games take full advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities, combining multitouch, the accelerometer, and allowing users to play online or with other users within range.

>> More interaction with music

But it’s not just the way that we discover, organise and playback music that the iPhone is changing. It’s opening up new ways of interacting with music as well. The recent rise of music-based gaming really comes into its own on a mobile device that users also see as a music device. Tap Tap Revenge, a Guitar Hero-like game, has taken the App Store by storm and has now been installed by over 5M people worldwide. Tapulous COO, Robert Andrews points out that, “As a game it’s starting to be more along the lines of an interactive music video rather than balls coming down on a rail that you have to tap to.” He adds, “It’s important to keep pushing the envelope because people really do want to interact with the music they don’t just want to listen to it.” These games have also created new revenue streams for labels, not just through licensed premium apps, such as the Nine Inch Nails and Weezer editions of Tap Tap, but also through the music discovery that takes place via Tap Tap Revenge. Players receive a new track to play every Thursday and Tapulous claim weekly downloads of between 150,000 and 300,000 for popular artists such as Katy Perry, Weezer and Offspring. 22 • FEBRUARY 2009 #87

Labels have reacted to successes like this by creating their own iPhone apps. Artists like Pink and Snow Patrol have both released interactive album apps through iTunes. This could just be the tip of the iceberg. iPhone as a music creation tool

Another category of music application that has been hugely successful is music creation. Not content with just listening to music created by others, iPhone users are busy downloading and playing all manner of virtual instruments. From the Zelda-like tones of Smule’s ‘Ocarina’ that is played by blowing on the iPhone like a flute and pressing keys on its touch screen, to the numerous different virtual guitars, pianos and synthesizers that all compete for five minutes of your attention. Whilst some of these may be no more than gimmicks, fully-fledged music sequencing software such as Intua’s ‘Beatmaker’ highlight the true potential of the iPhone as a serious music creation tool for the masses. Beatmaker’s Colin Laplace certainly believes so. “Part of the success of BeatMaker is the combination of ease of use and entertainment, which allows new-timers to create music while getting quality results that cannot be achieved with

more modest applications.” He goes on to add “As for music creation, the iPhone opens new ways to think about how, when and where music can be produced. We do not see the platform as a substitute for more conventional tools, but as a great musician companion when creativity strikes.” An exciting future ahead

So it looks set to be an exciting future for music on the iPhone. Apple is creating new opportunities for the music industry and for developers with novel ideas. With sales of recorded music on the decline these are opportunities that need to be identified and embraced. “There are some pretty powerful forces at play here,” concludes Tapulous’ Robert Andrews. “The intersection of music and mobile is very hot still. Particularly on the iPhone because you have to remember that the route to the iPhone is the iPod, a music listening device. It’s a very natural extension of the device and I feel pretty confident that that’s going to grow strongly over the next 12 months.” Apple has changed the game, again