Yesterday, a neophyte app called SongBooth, announced what comes across as a combination ‘formal app release’ and new reality television show of the musical talent variety. The app received its newest update only the day before on December 4 and is looking to gain consumer awareness, active use and serious momentum in time for the first quarter of next year. Sure, any app developer would want a large attraction to and download boom of their product, so one might ask what makes SongBooth so special and why the first three months of 2013 are so important.
SongBooth is a social music video-making app for the iOS and is compatible with all iDevices, with few generational exceptions listed on the app’s iTunes page. Developed by Lowe Key Media, a mobile technology agency, whose specialities are listed on their official Facebook as services that include: “full spectrum campaigns, digital advertising, mobile, social media, brand development, website design, and application development,” SongBooth is just one of many undertakings from this company.
Some of what SongBooth promotes within the internet’s social universe is much of the same. Terms such as “Like,” “Follow,” “Share,” and “Comment” are expectantly present, as they are nearly obligatory options for any kind of genuine success. The majority of what users are prompted to do is create their own music videos from song source material that can originate from one of three places. There are instrumental tracks built in the app for use after download, more tracks can be acquired through in-app purchasing or users can utilize the music already present in their own iTunes music collections to sing along with and record. Downloaders are given the option to register via Facebook or email but must create an account to dig through the app, even as an attempt to explore. Though not surprising, the idea of browsing functions and popular usage without giving your identity to someone can be a nice plus and denying this can be a slight turn off.
Regardless, once past this detail, the app does prompt some serious intrigue because it goes beyond “make something and show it off in an app-confined community.” Not everyone can get on The X Factor, The Voice, America’s Got Talent, or American Idol but what those four shows all have in common is their inevitable gift of exposure to anyone who does manage, even if they don’t make it to the winner’s circle. SongBooth is giving ambitious individuals the opportunity to get exposure and fans through a medium that has shifted places in the last decade with the decline of music-centric channels, and the exposure doesn’t stop within the app’s user base. “Project Songbooth,” an extension of the app, as described in the press release, is a…
…global contest [that] will take place and users will have a chance to submit their music video, whereby the video with the most likes over a set period of time will receive a recording contract with a major label or music executive. The first contest will take place in March 2013, with the winner announced in August 2013.
The details of what label is putting themselves out there in partnership with SongBooth or what the main stipulations of said contract are, are kept unrevealed at the moment. However, according to the press release, Gregory Lowe, the CEO of Lowe Key Media, has put in plenty of dues with the music business and gained acclaim high profile enough to warrant a good amount of credibility and having an even better amount of excitement about this contest and reward; if a contract is what one is aspiring toward. Recognition from entities like Microsoft, business collaborations with artists like Ne-Yo and buzz from publications like Jet Magazine mean that even in choosing to withhold specifics for now, there’s reason to give SongBooth a real try and see its potential exactly for what it’s promising in the future.
SongBooth is free and available now for download from the iTunes Store.
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1
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