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.