Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Smule wants the world to sing together with a music-oriented social network



Smule, the maker of the popular Magic Piano and Sing Karaoke mobile apps has launched a new web-based social network that lets music lovers connect and collaborate through their songs. Will this be the next big social media hit?*





“I’d like to teach the world to sing,” goes the hit song from the 1970′s. With this latest release from mobile app developer Smule, music lovers from around the world might just have a better way to share their musical talents and inclinations with each other than simply belting out Karaoke tunes by themselves.

In a newly-launched music-oriented social network for the web, Smule is expanding on its already popular music app offerings, which will allow users from around the world to sing together in Karaoke fashion.

Smule’s Magic Piano already gets 1.2 million songs played each day on its iOS and Android apps. The Sing Karaoke app is also popular with amateur singers, getting about 480,000 plays per day. The developer was also behind the popular Ocarina and Ocarina 2 apps, which turned iPhones into wind instruments, enabling users to jam with other users online.

Until now, usage has been limited to these mobile apps, however. With Smule’s latest web-based launch, web users can now enjoy musical collaboration with friends from around the globe, too.

Jeffrey C. Smith, co-founder and CEO of Smule, admits that a lot of user-generated content may be raw, in terms of voice talent. But Smule excels as a platform for users to collaborate. “A lot of those songs … are not especially good,” he said in a statement. “But when you have a hundred million people singing, playing, and curating the songs, a couple nuggets rise to the top.”

Jeannie Yang, chief product officer for Smule, said that this curation and collaboration factor will push the really great content from the top. “What’s fun about it is that it is all pretty authentic. It’s raw. It’s like YouTube. It’s like a new radio channel. And that’s fun.”

Smith co-founded Smule in 2008 while he was a graduate student at Stanford University, along with with Stanford assistant professor Ge Wang. The company’s investors include*Bessemer Venture Partners, Granite Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Floodgate. With the launch of a web-based interface for singing with friends, the company is optimistic that offering universal access to its content will let more people enjoy the platform.

Will Smule be the next social media hit like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram?

Source: VentureBeat



Read More: http://vr-zone.com/articles/smule-wa...ork/58832.html






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