iPhone music apps: more than just the new album cover?
I’ve been talking to a lot of people about music-related iPhone apps these past few days since giving my talk on the subject at Music Connected (slides here, full article here). One school of thought is that we’ll see many artists and labels bringing out apps that will be nothing more than a marketing gimmick, a one-off trick, unlikely to last on a fans phone for more than a week or so.
Another argument emerging is that iPhone apps will become the new ‘album cover’. Artists will create these apps to promote and extend the album experience allowing fans to access additional content such as news, bonus tracks, exclusive videos and other forms of other interactive content. Some may even follow a standard format which will allow them to be produced inexpensively and given away free with the album as a bargaining chip to get the album featured on the iTunes homepage. Whilst that is all fine, and I welcome it, I’m not actually convinced that these apps will deliver more value than an experience that could already take place via the web. We’re definitely going to see more and more of this style of ‘album cover’ app in the next 3-6 months but there’s still a massive opportunity over and above this for true innovation and creativity.
So I was excited yesterday to discover Lilt Line, an app that hits a succulently sweet spot between independent game design and cutting edge music. According to developer, Gordon Midwood Lilt Line is a “massively single player retro rhythm racing beat ‘em up premiere musical space flight simulator action game with a dubstep flavour”.
How f*cking cool is that? Check the demo below, then go download the app!
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