Last Updated on December 24, 2012 by New-Startups Team
There was first American Idol then XFactor and of course the Voice, it seems there never seems to be a drought on people that think they can sing. Although some should keep their vocals double locked behind a 20 inch safe for no one else to hear, singing is one of those things that almost everyone loves to participate in.
Toronto startup Syrp is hoping our affliction for karaoke bars translates over to smartphones by recently releasing Jukeboxer, an app that that pits users against each other in an all out singing-brawl. Jukeboxer lets you sing as loud as you want (adding the help of voice filters if you wish) with friends and strangers as the community decides who should be the champion. Available with ads for free on the iPhone and $0.99 as a “Pro” ad-free version.
Users challenge their Facebook friends or connect with people they don’t know to record 30-second vocal clips that can be enchanted with 14 different and unique audio filters to change your voice to sound like a rockstar, something goofy or anything in between. Filters include “Alien”, “Chipmunk”, and “Low Voice”, and others are also available via in-app purchases. Once a vocal has been created and uploaded other users are asked to judge the challenge to earn points and decide who sings the best.
While sifting through the app opportunities to buy tracks via iTunes, view videos and discover new music is an entertaining experience. Also some of the vocal contests were very hard to determine a winner because they sounded that good, while upon first launching the app an expectation of horrible sonic waves were about to resonate, but that wasn’t the case- surprisingly.
The app is superbly designed and intuitive app was designed in partnership with Filament Creative Inc. We asked Matt Hryhorsky about the approach when tackling the unique branding opportunity of Jukeboxer:
“With a name like Jukeboxer, it was a great opportunity for us to take an approach that blended both the music a boxing worlds. For us, that meant a throwback to the days when a song cost a dime and Sugar Ray Robinson was taking the world by storm. We wanted to give a nod to the era without losing sight of the modern platform we were designing for.
Games are meant to be played, so in addition to the focus placed on aesthetics like the vintage colour palette and the boxing-poster-inspired typography for the brand mark, a lot of Jukeboxer’s design lies in the tone and flow of game play itself. Great design should be seamless. It doesn’t get in the way or stand out, but allows a user to move more freely through the app experience and that’s what we set out to accomplish.”
“As for the icon, our initial icon sketches revolved around the boxing ring but we felt the vintage announcers mic helped users understand the musicality of the app before playing their first round. We went through several iterations, simplifying along the way and with the help of the great guys at Syrp, we came up with an icon that we think really stands out in a sea of bubbly game icons.”
Image by: Lindsay Trevors of Filament Creative Inc.
Image by: Lindsay Trevors of Filament Creative Inc.
Syrp has taken a big detour from their original app called Cloud Photos. A utilitarian app helping you manage photo’s with Dropbox upload capabilities. While they will continue to support the apps development, Jukeboxer will now be the center of their focus. So if you want to share your sonic achievements with friends or strangers you will grow to love this app. It may not be for everyone but is an entertaining fork from the obligatory constants of daily app life.