The 40 Best Branded iPhone Music Apps Of 2009

By Music Ally on December 23, 2009 at 8:40 AM

Music apps are a huge category of apps, and 2009 was a huge year for music apps. Music Ally sums up the year’s biggest music apps for us here.

2009 was the year of the App Store, as Apple passed the two-billion downloads milestone for its store. The year also saw labels and artists jumping onto the bandwagon with their own branded iPhone apps.

The most successful, like Smule’s I Am T-Pain (pictured right) sold tens of thousands of copies a day. It’s only fair to point out that the vast majority sank down the app charts fairly quickly though – proving that iPhone apps provide a return on investment for the music industry wasn’t a huge priority this year.

Even so, there was plenty of creativity being put to work. To highlight it, we’ve chosen a selection of 40 branded music apps that we thought were innovative this year – which were all covered in theMusic Ally Daily Bulletin.

They’re all based on artists, labels and other music brands – the list doesn’t include apps for music services like Spotify or Pandora, nor does it include pure music games like Rock Band or Tap Tap Revenge (although one of the latter’s artist-branded spin-offs is included).

Read on for a snapshot of what was released this year, and let us know your thoughts on the best and worst of what the App Store had to offer. Oh, and yes, we’ve put them in a rough order reflecting how much we liked them, starting with the best.

1. I Am T-Pain might be an obvious choice for top spot, but it combined technical innovation with stellar sales. Eschewing pure promotion, it let fans sing along with a selection of T-Pain songs while having their vocals Auto-Tuned on the fly. It also had good sharing features, used in-app payments to buy and download new tracks for use in the game, and recently added the ability to sing over any song in your iPhone music library. App Store

2. Little Boots Reactive Remixer was a branded version of existing iPhone app RjDj. Yes, it involved remixing three of Boots’ tracks, but in two cases that was done based on the user’s movement and external sounds – a properly interactive ambient experience. Or something. App Store

3. Hi, How Are You was a beautiful iPhone game based on the artwork of singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston. Described by the New York Times as “a kind of psycho-religious version of Frogger”, it was a great game backed up with Daniel’s visuals and music. App Store

4. Sonifi was one of the most fully featured ‘remix an artist’ apps, being designed by and for trance artist BT. It let fans mess with the beats, bass, melodies and harmonies of his latest tracks. The killer feature, though, was a two-player ‘Jam Link’ mode to collaborate over Bluetooth. App Store

5. Live Metallica (pictured) was an official app from the metal band that constantly offered a free stream of their latest gig, while also letting fans buy (no, NOT from iTunes) previous sets. Photos and notes from each show made it a must-have for fans. App Store

6. iDrum Underworld Edition was another of the best examples of the popular ‘remix your favourite artist’ app genre this year. It offered 13 tracks to mess around with in an intuitive square-tapping interface, with artwork from the band’s design chums at Tomato.App Store

7. Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness was a graphic novel based on The Man In Black’s life. It didn’t include his songs, but had a clever ‘search and insert’ feature to find his tracks on a user’s iPhone to play at the relevant points of the story. App Store

8. nin: access was the official iPhone app for Nine Inch Nails – one of the more tech-savvy artists in the industry right now. It gives fans access to the community and multimedia sections of the band’s website, as well as letting them chat and upload photos from their iPhone. App Store

9. The Presidents of the United States of America was an app by the band of the same name, offering four albums from their back catalogue as streams, as well as lost recordings, live tracks and other extras. App Store

10. Lady Gaga iOKi (pictured) was a karaoke app based on La Gaga, with instrumental and vocal remixes from four of her hits enabling people to sing along with her, then go it alone. In-app payments allowed new songs to be purchased and downloaded too, from Gaga and other artists. App Store

11. Deadmau5 Mix was one of the first ‘remix an artist’ apps for iPhone, from an artist who would release several more apps later in the year. It let fans remix 10 tracks by applying delays, effects, rewinds and cuts, complete with a virtual scratch pad. App Store

12. Metallica Revenge was one of Tapulous’ artist-focused spin-offs from its Tap Tap Revenge games – although in fairness we could have picked its titles for Coldplay, Lady Gaga or the Dave Matthews Band in this slot. What these games nailed was the combination of gameplay and experiencing the actual music. App Store

13. Haus of Gaga was one of the first fruits of Universal Music Group’s deal with Kyte, turning its artists’ video blogs into iPhone apps. It offered new and archive episodes of the Transmission Gagavision vlog, as well as news, tourdates and live chat. App Store

14. Robbie Williams Racing was, would you believe it, a racing game based on Robbie Williams. No pure cash-in, though – besides his tracks featuring in the game, Robbie himself provided the commentary, with unlockable videos and photos for skilled players. App Store

15. Delicious Vinyl DJ was a music game based on the famous hip-hop label, getting players to match notes to the sounds of Young MC, Tone Loc, The Pharcyde and Masta Ace. A nifty way of getting value out of some venerable hits. App Store

16. Get Physical Mix was a compilation app based on the back catalogue of the Get Physical dance label, which allowed fans to DJ and mix the songs themselves, complete with a virtual scratch pad.App Store

17. Grateful Dead (pictured) was an interactive mosaic ebook – an iPhone version of one of those big pictures which lets you zoom in to see lots of little pictures. Those little pictures being 450 photos of the legendary jam-band, with fans able to comment on each, or share with friends. App Store

18. Gedda-Headz was a mini-game collection for iPhone that offered multiplayer and community features, while tying in with collectible real-world toys. We still haven’t heard any music from the band it’s supposedly based on, but it was nevertheless a neat idea.App Store

19. HWD was an app created for UK artist Heads We Dance, which allowed fans to stream the band’s new album Love Technology two weeks before its official release, with news, photos and community features thrown in. App Store

20. It’s Britney was Britney Spears’ entry into the App Store, offering the usual news, Twitter feed, photo galleries and even a virtual lighter. There was also a UGC feature to paste your head onto the body of one of Britney’s dancers, and most importantly, if you shake your iPhone, the app shouts “It’s Britney Bitch!”. App Store

21. Twentyten was an iPhone ‘calendar’ app revolving around the key 2010 dates of Belle & Sebastian, with a built-in news feed and bonus digital content. An elegant spin on the promo iPhone app idea. App Store

22. Snoop Dogg’s iFizzle (pictured) was a fairly simple app, but with plenty of charm. It was a collection of audioclips of Snoop’s “most popular and iconic” phrases and quotes. Yep, including “Fo Shizzle My Nizzle”. App Store

23. Phanatic was an app built for hardcore fans of jam-band Phish, offering a comprehensive database of setlists from the band’s history. That included links to YouTube videos of performances, and the ability to generate stats in mid-show – e.g. ‘when was the last time they played this?’. App Store

24. Ziggy Marley’s Music Mixer was another remixing app, but with the neat twist of a slot-machine interface – users could shake their iPhone to randomly mix up Ziggy’s songs. Or they could put the time in to mess about with the tracks themselves, of course. App Store

25. Remix David Bowie – Space Oddity was… well, the title gives it away. It let iPhone users mess around with Bowie’s classic hit by tweaking individual tracks, then save the mix as a ringtone.App Store

26. Riff King was a branded app for UK metallers Saxon, with streaming samples of the band’s latest album and their new video. However, it also tied in with their YouTube UGC contest – also called Riff King – letting users of the app watch the latest entries. App Store

27. Usher’s Top 100 didn’t actually focus on R&B star Usher’s music – instead, it saw him turn curator, picking 100 of his favourite tracks which users could stream through the same tech used for the PUSA application. App Store

28. The Heavy was the official app from Ninja Tune artist The Heavy, and it offered their entire back catalogue on a streaming basis, plus three videos, news and tourdates, and live footage. But it’s the streaming element that intrigued us most. App Store

29. Coldplay Strawberry Swing (pictured) was an app created for Coldplay by online TV firm Babelgum. It showcased the video for the band’s Strawberry Swing single as well as their previous videos, bundling in a game for good measure. App Store

30. Deadmau5 Live was yet another iPhone app based on the innovative dance artist. It let fans vote on what songs he should play as his encore at his London Roundhouse gig in October, before serving up a 20-minute live recording once the show was done. (No longer available)

31. New Boyz – iJerkin’ was a music game created for WMG act The New Boyz, based on their apparently-popular You’re A Jerk dance moves. We stress ‘apparently’. Players could tap, slide and shake to make the band pop their moves, and then buy more tracks. App Store

32. What The Funkytown! was unusual, in that it was based on a song rather than an artist or label. It was a virtual scratching app to monkey about with Funkytown, speeding it up and slowing it down, or even playing it in reverse. App Store

33. Snow Patrol: Snowflake was the band’s second iPhone app, providing a news feed, forum and the ability to upload photos at gigs to the band’s website. The snowflake theme was carried through to a section where fans could create their own unique flakes. App Store

34. Kiss Virtual Concert Lighter (pictured) was, well, a virtual concert lighter. With 24 branded virtual lighter cases to choose from, a scrolling text marquee, and a “realistic flame”. Novelty personalisation, yes, but fun with it. App Store

35. Delphic was a soundtoy app released to promote the band of the same name’s new single. A simple drum loop was complemented by the fan tapping on-screen pads to trigger samples. App Store

36. Kiss Me Thru The Phone was an app based around the Soulja Boy song of the same name. It was a photo customisation tool to help fans ‘add swag’ to their pics, or plant virtual kisses on friends and family before sharing the results. App Store

37. Pepsi Rock Band was an app created to promote the Rock Band console games. It let people put their own faces on the shoulders of characters from the games, then share them via email, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. It also provided buy links for songs from Pepsi’s ad campaign. (No longer available)

Karaoke Revolution Review

Warm up your pipes.

by Greg Miller

December 2, 2009 - The last couple of times Karaoke Revolution has come to consoles, it's been wrapped up in an American Idol package. That might sound good, but the lame covers, shallow voice work for the judges, and blandness made the games something that even hardcore singing fans like myself wouldn't want to spend too much time with.

Karaoke Revolution is a return to basics -- Paula and Randy are gone, the master tracks are here, and there's some nifty character creation stuff going on -- but it's not a return to the franchise's glory days.

Just like every singing game on the market, Karaoke Revolution is all about picking one of your favorite songs (there are 50 tracks on this disc, and they're listed below) and belting it out for all sorts of points and bonuses. Pitch and timing bars scroll by with the words underneath them, and you sing so that the onscreen triangle traces those passing bars. Nail the notes, get oodles of points. Sing well enough and you'll earn Star Boosts, which act as massive multipliers. It's a solid, fun system that's been in place for a long time now; the only real addition here is the fact that there's no maximum multiplier so it's possible to put up some super-scores if you know what you're doing

Karaoke Revolution stumbles with its presentation. The menus are just a boring font in compartmentalized boxes that look more like placeholder art than something that belongs in a full price game. When you jump in to pick a song, there's no slick interface -- it's just a big ugly list of tracks. There are album covers off to the side, but these take a second to load and cause stuttering when scrolling through the songs. When the singers are on the stage, their mouths move like robots in a Chuck E. Cheese and never really match the words of the song. During one medley, my singer stood there like a statue as the tracks switched.

It's all of these little things that knock the wind out of an otherwise fun game.

There is a bunch of good stuff to touch on when talking about Karaoke Revolution. As mentioned before, the mechanics work well and the original artist vocals are here along with music videos that play on the stage during your performance (you can replace this with your PlayStation Eye feed). But the creation suite is actually pretty impressive, as well. Using age sliders, hairstyles, tops, shoes, and colors, you can whip up your own characters or mod the ones that came with the game. Making a hideous, rail-thin old woman covered in wrinkles and packing red eyes is actually pretty easy and looks pretty creepy. You can also scratch your creative itch by designing your own stage setup. Here, the game gives you a blank canvas with eight different stage parts to mod – stuff like band podiums, speaker rigs, and so on. You choose the position and scroll through the available options. It's plug-and-play, but it's a nifty little feature – you can even add lighting effects.

Karaoke Revolution Tracks
"Gives You Hell" - All American Rejects	"Man On The Moon" - R.E.M.
"Rehab" - Amy Winehouse	"Addicted to Love" - Robert Palmer
"I Ran" - A Flock Of Seagulls	"This Love" - Maroon 5
"Space Oddity" - David Bowie	"So What" - P!nk
"Love Hurts" - Incubus	"Crazy" - Seal
"Black Horse & The Cherry Tree" - KT Tunstall	"Wicked Game" - Chris Isaak
"Pocketful of Sunshine" - Natasha Beadingfield	"Sex On Fire" - Kings Of Leon
"You Found Me" - The Fray	"I Kissed A Girl" - Katy Perry
"Just Dance" - Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis	"Human" - The Killers
"Viva la Vida" - Coldplay	"Solid" - Ashford & Simpson
"I Melt With You" - Modern English	"99 Times" - Kate Voegele
"The Logical Song" - Supertramp	"Disturbia" - Rihanna
"Shout" - Tears for Fears	"American Boy" - Estelle feat. Kanye West
"7 Things" - Miley Cyrus	"What Have I Done To Deserve This" - Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield
"I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz	"Beautiful" - Akon feat. Colby O'Donis & Kardinal Offishall
"Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" - Rod Stewart	"I Want You Back" - Jackson 5
"Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab For Cutie	"ABC" - Jackson 5
"What Hurts the Most" - Rascal Flatts	"I'll Be There" - Jackson 5
"Feels Like Tonight" - Daughtry	"Dancing Machine" - Jackson 5
"My Life Would Suck Without You" - Kelly Clarkson	"Ben" - Michael Jackson
"Love Is A Battlefield" - Pat Benatar	"Enamorada" - Miranda
"Smile" - Lily Allen	"Ser O Parecer" - RBD
"Burning Down The House" - Talking Heads	"A Labio Dulce" - Iskander
"Love Story" - Taylor Swift	"Si Me Besas" - Lola
"Ain't No Stopping Us Now" - McFadden & Whitehead	"No Me Doy Por Vencido" - Luis Fonsi

To unlock more components for your character and stage, you'll need to play through the game's career mode. Now, calling it a career mode is a bit of a misnomer. That makes it sound like you're choosing a character and having a career. Instead, you take on challenges – play a medley on medium, make a setlist, etc. – to unlock pieces of a giant record. You're just moving your cursor around to different pieces of the broken records, playing the challenge, and unlocking more pieces. There are three records to complete in the game and you can change characters at any time.

As a career mode – at least in my opinion – this is terrible. There's no progression and no connection to the character. On top of that, this is another ugly screen where the broken record is just floating on a blank background. I want to feel like I'm singing for a reason if a mode is supposed to be my "career." Then again, as just a mode in a game, I enjoyed this. Piecing the record together is a goofy idea, but seeing the vinyl slowly fill out was actually satisfying. I found myself always doing one more song because I could see the bite-sized challenges paying off.

Still, I got to a point where I was done trying to fill in the record for my play session. Yes, Karaoke Revolution has 50 songs and that's nothing to sneeze at, but the game kind of goes for an all-in-one title rather than focusing on any particular genre and that means there's plenty on here that I have no interest in ever singing. Knowing that, I doubt I'll play that much online. If you're not hosting the match, you have no say in what gets played. There's no voting system or anything. There are tournaments to play in and you could always set up what you want to sing with a friend, but it's still an online option that's just kind of there.

Thankfully, Karaoke Revolution will support downloadable songs and even allows you to use the DLC from the past American Idol games, so there's already a healthy library for you to go out and pick from. You just have to pay.

Closing Comments
When I first saw Karaoke Revolution at E3 2009, I thought this game really had a chance at returning the franchise to greatness. Sadly, the dated animations and blah presentation keep this title from being anything amazing, but singers will have fun with it if they lower their expectations. The master tracks are a welcome addition, the creation modes have some depth, and it’s cool that the party mode remembers the people who have played before.

Still, there’s no need to rush out and snatch this one up.

Music enthusiasts sing praises of Karaoke in the Country

BY PATRICIA A. WEST-VOLLAND • CORRESPONDENT • NOVEMBER 13, 2009

Singing, good friends and a potluck-style dinner have singers from all over the state attending Karaoke in the Country with Barb and Bill Marling.
Music can be heard from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays and 6 to 11 p.m. Fridays coming from the Marling Barn at 7400 Sweetheart Drive.

"If you want good family entertainment, this is it," Cecil Smith, of Dresden, said. "This is a nice environment. This is a nice family place I can bring my kids down. It's hard to find a place where everyone's not raising heck."

Cecil sings as much as he can and is supported by his friend, Sherry Gee, of Dresden. Cecil has been singing karaoke for the past three years and won third place in the karaoke contest at the Coshocton County Fair this year. While Sherry does not sing, she supports Cecil's efforts.

"He'd sing every night of the week if he could," she said.

Usually Tuesday's crowd is smaller so guests have more opportunities to sing, Bill said. Some guests not only sing but adlib with a comedy act too.

Sue and Rick Hildebrand entertained the crowd with their humorous version of "Those Were the Days" the theme song from "All in the Family." The crowd laughed each time Sue, who sang in an Edith Bunker voice, hit the high notes, or as Edith, tried to.

They have been singing "twice a week for three years," Sue said. They won the Mike Ward Duet Karaoke contest at the Muskingum County Fair this year.

"We're addicted," Rick said. "Yep, we're addicted."

"It's a great stress reliever," Sue said.

If laughter is a great stress reliever, the crowd must have left that night stress free. Not only did the Hildebrands' song have the crowd laughing, Chad Sims' rendition of "Marie Laveau" had them clapping and laughing.

Chad's mother, Karan Adams, and two daughters, Elizabeth, 7, and Michelle Sims, 6, attend the karaoke nights, too.

"I love it," Chad said. "My grandmother was a country singer in Newark. She got me started singing. It's great family fun. You don't have to go to the bars with all the obnoxious people."

Anita and Bob Rector, of Nashport, have been singing duets for the past three years. Anita denies being a singer but the couple won the Mike Ward Karaoke contest for 50 and older at the Muskingum County Fair this year.

"I'm not a singer," Anita said. "I sing duets with my husband. I like getting up and having a good time with everybody."

Her favorite song to sing is "Just You and I."

While Kevin Rush has been singing karaoke at the Marling Barn for about a year, he has been singing since he was 7-years old. He sang along as his uncle played guitar and was later in a rock band.

Kevin has sung at many festivals and county fairs. He won the karaoke contest at the Monroe County Fair.

"Actually my whole family sings," Kevin said.

Singers like the fact there are four TV screens around the room so everyone can sing along. A large 50-inch TV placed on the back wall allows singers to "look out over everyone's head to sing," Bill said.

"No matter where you sit you can see a screen," Bill added.

Guests can bring their own music but the Marlings have about 7,000 songs from which to choose. Guests can record their song on a CD while they are singing to take home.

The Marlings built their barn specifically for karaoke because "we got tired of singing in the bars," Bill said.

They enjoy meeting people and like to sing. Barb and Bill won the Karaoke Contest at the Muskingum County Fair in 2008 and entertained there this year. They won the Morgan County Fair, too.

Meeting people and making friends was another reason many guests return.

"We've met so many friends from Buckeye Lake and Marietta, all over, that they become like extended family," Anita said.

While some guests come to sing, others come for the good food.

"I come here for Barb's cooking," Terry Montgomery said. "She puts out an e-mail newsletter each week and tells us what she's cooking."

Food is potluck style with guests bringing food, too. The Marlings ask for a $5 donation but do not want the donation to stop anyone from attending the karaoke singing evenings.

Patricia A. West-Volland is the community reporter for the Times Recorder and can be reached at paw105591@windstream.net.

Tracklist revealed for We Sing

News by Ellie Gibson,

The tracklists for two new karaoke games coming this Christmas have been revealed.

First up is We Sing, a Wii title from Nordic Games which allows up to four people to sing together. A new website has just launched revealing the 30 songs and artists featured in the game.

Highlights of the tracklist include Tears Dry On Their Own by Amy Winehouse, Would I Lie to You? by Charles and Eddie, The One and Only from Chesney Hawkes and John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads. Lowlights include Trouble by Shampoo, Barbie Girl by Aqua and some Roxette song. Also: James Morrison.

Alternatively there's the new instalment in the Karaoke Revolution series which is coming to Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360. It will feature 50 songs but only a handful have been revealed so far, including ABC, Dancing Machine, I Want You Back and I'll Be There from the Jackson 5. Plus there's Michael Jackson's first solo No. 1, Ben. Us neither.

More contemporary tracks include So What by Pink, Viva La Vida by Coldplay and Rhianna's Disturbia. Or how about a bit of Rod Stewart (Do Ya Think I'm Sexy), Taylor Swift (Love Story) or Miranda (Enamorada)? Thought not.

We Sing and Karaoke Revolution will both be released on 20th November. It's just like John and Edward vs. Lucie all over again.

Recorder Audio

Assuming that you are using a 3-head deck, the “analog processed” tracks will be delayed by the distance between the record and playback heads as determined by the tape speed. You can easily compensate for this delay by realigning the processed tracks in your DAW. (With a 2-head machine, you'll have to finish recording to tape, then rewind and play your tracks back into the workstation.)

Unfortunately, open-reel tape recorders are not being commercially produced these days, so you'll have to find one used. I recommend buying from a company that specializes in recorder restoration, rather than making a risky purchase on eBay: you'll pay more up front but be rewarded with a dependable machine.

Because buying a used recorder is a gamble, you'll have to invest some time to prove that the machine is worthy before playing an expensive test tape or a valuable master on it. What follows is a list of steps you can take to assess the operating condition of an open-reel machine and diagnose any problems along the way, as well as an overview of what's involved in setting up and maintaining a trustworthy analog tape recorder.

DVD Player

This introduction to DVD playback applications for GNU/Linux looks at Xine, VideoLAN Client, MPlayer and Ogle. In addition to playing encrypted DVDs, unofficially in some cases, several of these players also will play back other file formats.

Xine has quite a large following, and for good reason, as it is a very capable DVD player. In addition, like most of the players reviewed here, Xine is capable of playing a large range of file types in addition to unencrypted-DVD playback. Xine easily can be extended with additional functionality as it supports plugins that enable you to incorporate new codecs (open- or closed-source) or any additional function easily. There are many plugins available for Xine on the Net ready to be downloaded.

Xine only supports the playback of unencrypted DVD directly, but support for encrypted DVDs is provided by a third-party plugin (xine_d4d_plugin). It is unlikely that Xine will support encrypted DVDs directly. The legal status of this plugin is, as always, debatable, but it is easy enough to find and install. There are some useful links on the Xine web site, and a search at Google should find the required links for this plugin. It is stated on the Xine web site that encrypted DVD playback is not going to be supported directly because of the legal issues that surround this area. However, once you have installed the plugin, Xine's playback of encrypted DVDs is smooth with no noticeable problems with audio synchronization or any video glitches.

Xine's interface is tidy and provides most of the function you might require. Depending upon your preferences, you may find that it takes up too much space on your desktop. As Xine is currently not skinnable, there is no way to change the size or layout of the GUI. If you are running XFree86 4.x, with a supported video card, you can switch Xine from windowed to full-screen mode and back again smoothly. If this is not supported by your video card or version of X, Xine still can be viewed in a window, which is the default startup mode.

Unfortunately, Xine does not support DVD menus directly; however, there is a plugin called dvdnav (available from prdownloads.sourceforge.net/dvd) that adds this functionality to Xine. This plugin is a must-have if you intend to use Xine for DVD playback. The plugin works very well, even with the complex animated menus that some DVDs have, and although this is not required for DVD playback, it obviously gives you complete access to all the features available. The code for the DVD navigation was written referencing the original Ogle DVD menu code base.