5 Finalists From SXSW’s Accelerator Competition With Musical Potential

By Carolyn Heneghan

Each year, SXSW contributes to music and tech innovation, particularly through its Accelerator Competition. This year, more than 500 startups applied to participate in the competition, and these were then whittled down to 48 finalists. A panel of experts will then choose the 18 best startups to present their product or service to another panel of judges in addition to a live SXSW audience.

While SXSW is known by most as a music festival, this year’s finalists in the competitions are surprisingly non-music related. There are a few that can be applied to various aspects of music technology, and we’ve included those in our list of five SXSW music tech finalists, curated with the help of Hypebot.

Artiphon

If you’re looking for next-gen musical instruments, Artiphon is one of the latest to hit the music tech scene. The latest tech-savvy musical instruments are often made to be played by anyone of any level of skill, and Artiphon combines this ease with appeal to the professional musician.

Armed with its “Touch Sound” philosophy, Artiphon is a multi-instrument that can be held in a variety of ergonomic positions and can produce a versatile wealth of sounds by being strummed, bowed, picked or plucked. It has a patent-pending fretboard interface with six virtual strings, six virtual frets and full fretless playability. It provides the subtle nuances of traditional stringed instruments while going beyond the capabilities of analog strings. Artiphon has multi-track recording capabilities with apps such as Garageband and Auria and direct control of computer software like Ableton, Traktor and Pro Tools. It is a high-tech answer to the modern string instrument, and it allows the player to create truly unique sounds.

Bionym

In our previous article about heartbeat music capabilities, we touched on various devices and programs that could eventually be used to create or curate music based on the human heartbeat. Bionym’s Nymi is a device with similar capabilities, though it was not specifically created with music in mind. Nymi is a form of wearable authentication technology which can allow you to wirelessly control your computer, smartphone, car and more.

This device interaction could easily include your music library and music preferences, which the device can learn from your very own heartbeat. Imagine being able to simply put on the wristband and access the appropriate playlist for your mood immediately based on your heartbeat at that time. This is yet another device that enables the power of the heartbeat outside of your body.

Kiwi Wearable Technologies

Small, easily clipped to your wardrobe and deemed fashionable, the multi-functional Kiwi Move allows wearers to “seamlessly interact with their environments, elegantly simplifying and optimizing their daily lives.” This one device has a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, thermometer and microphone, but its music capabilities come in with gesture control.

The device can read your motions to draw musical notes in the air and can identify the songs playing around you. It can change the way you interact with music by analyzing your entire environment and all of the music that is around you. From there, the Move’s potential will be determined when the device hits the market.

OP3Nvoice

Using API, SDKs, and plugins, OP3Nvoice users can “extract more knowledge from video and voice recordings.” It allows users to search recorded data, which can mean accomplishing anything from searching phone calls to find and verify data to helping users seek out specific moments in lectures, notes, and interviews.

In terms of music, this application could enable users to make music requests to their devices using their voices rather than their hands. This can be most helpfully applied to mobile devices and devices in a car, but it can also be integral to wearable music technology, allowing users to locate a particular lyric in a song or request their next song hands-free.

sonarDesign

In short, sonarDesign allows you to create micro-apps (mApps) on smartphones, tablets, and desktops that can suit a variety of purposes. You can either use one of the startup’s preconfigured templates or build your own from scratch. Once you create the mApp, sonarDesign will provide services for hosting, e-commerce, customer service, and analytics.

On its website, sonarDesign is advertised as a product for presentations, photo scrapbooks and instructional materials, but it has musical applications as well. Musicians and music industry professionals could create these mApps for purposes of promotion and distribution storefronts, such as for selling CDs, downloads, or other merchandise. Bands could also create mApps to find new and unique ways to connect with their fans on the mobile devices they are accustomed to using.

These are just a few of the many finalists from the 2014 SXSW Accelerator competition, but we are excited to see these music-enabled technologies rise to the top of the competition when the next round of 18 finalists is announced on March 8^th.