[Interview] Matt Loszak, Founder of JamCam

By Dave Mainella

Vine gives you your 6 seconds of visual fame. And Instagram recently launched competing video functionality. But JamCam brings music into the equation.

JamCam, designed by 23-year-old Matt Loszak and available for iOS, allows users to create 15-second videos without interrupting the song already playing on their iPhone. In fact, it pulls the song into the app, creating a soundtrack that matches perfectly. Running with the mantra “record video, but don’t stop the music”, JamCam aims to facilitate the creation of short music videos inspired by both the visual and audial moments.

Functionality is actually somewhat of a mix between Vine and Instagram. Users can edit video by tying individual shots together, and the song playing is automatically brought in based on the same rhythm of edits. The culmination is a 15-second masterpiece. The time limit is significant; video (with soundtrack) can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, Instagram.

We had a chance to talk with Matt Loszak about JamCam, its position in a the video-app space, and what to expect as the young app looks to establish itself in the music tech world.

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SoundCtrl: What was the inspiration behind JamCam?

Matt Loszak: I had the idea for JamCam while on a road trip with some friends. We were driving down a beautiful country road in Australia, and the music just seemed to match the moment perfectly. I opened up the iPhone’s camera app, but since the music was also coming from my phone, the music stopped! After a few weeks of thinking and planning, JamCam was born out of that frustration.

SC: You are the sole creator and developer. Is it a one-man show, and if so, will that change?

ML: For now, it’s just me. I do have big plans for JamCam, so when the time comes that I can’t keep up with the workload involved, I’ll bring other people on board. But while JamCam is young, I plan on keeping complete control of the product and its direction.

SC: How long have you been developing JamCam? Was this reactionary to the Instagram and Vine video space?

ML: I started developing JamCam at the start of August of this year, and it hit the App Store near the end of September. I had to do a fair amount of research into audio sessions with Apple’s SDK in order to accomplish what I wanted – it turned out that no other app (that I could find) actually didn’t interrupt the audio when opening a camera session. In the end I figured it out!

I was pleased to see that Instagram enabled video upload from the camera roll in early August, which was very timely. Vine was definitely a big inspiration in the shooting method (pause and resume). The difference at the moment is that JamCam is a tool first, and a sharing utility second — Instagram and Vine are social networks first and capturing tools second.

SC: I’ve read that the JamCam app works only with DRM-unlocked songs. Other than that, are there any other song limitations? Were there any licensing or copyright issues?

ML: The only other limitation that I can think of is songs that are in iCloud, but have not yet been downloaded to the device will not work. The reason for this is that JamCam uses the raw audio file with your video, so if it’s in the cloud (and not on the device), Apple doesn’t give other apps access to it.

As for copyright issues, JamCam essentially accomplishes the same type of thing as iMovie (or other video editing software), in that you can add audio to video. The difference is that JamCam does it in one step, and lets you hear the music you’re grooving out to while you’re shooting the video.

SC: Do you expect JamCam to gain traction as a stand-alone app? Are Instagram and Vine your competition? Or do you view JamCam as a tributary to those video social media outlets?

ML: For now JamCam is in many ways a tributary, but I expect that to change. The initial interest in JamCam was much greater than I expected – it really seems like something people have either been waiting for, or didn’t realize they even wanted (but now do). It went viral on Reddit the day after it came out, reaching the #1 spot in the iPhone category! So I think it has potential to be a standalone app, but it needs some attention to the community side.

SC: You also created Vibrauto, a music discovery website. Did that project influence the development of JamCam at all?

ML: Yes and No – I’ve been very interested in the intersection of music and tech for a while now, and have been experimenting with different ideas. I think what’s interesting about JamCam is that it has potential to be a real force for discovery in addition to creativity. For me (and probably many others), music is very much tied to experience. This could mean situations, emotions or otherwise. Browsing a JamCam community of music videos could be a powerful way to find songs that might not have appealed or made sense to you otherwise.

SC: JamCam launched just a few ago, but what can we expect moving forward?

ML: I alluded to it before, but I definitely see JamCam going the community route. Whereas Vine, Instagram and others are based around browsing a network of people and their creations, I envision JamCam being centered around the songs themselves. Imagine browsing JamCam by song, where each song would have its own crowd sourced music video that could even be different each time you watch it (pulling videos from different users). This also has great potential for helping artists fuel discovery and engagement, so I plan on partnering up with some talent in that way in the future!