Music Ally

More than 10.2 million Auto-Tunes recordings have been created using Smule’s I Am T-Pain iPhone app, the company has revealed.

The popular app lets people sing along to a selection of T-Pain songs with the infamous Auto-Tune effect being applied to their vocals, then share them via Facebook, MySpace or email. The news comes as Smule launches version 1.1 of the application, which widens it out to allow players to sing over any song in their music library too.

I Am T-Pain is the most successful artist app on iPhone so far – mainly because it’s great fun in its own right, rather than simply a feed of marketing messages. Recent launches of karaoke apps from Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga show other big artists are hoping for the same success.

iPhone music app developer Smule says that more than 100,000 online performances have taken place using its Leaf Trombone World Stage game. That means 100,000 instances of players parping along to popular songs while other players rate their efforts live, over the network.

Meanwhile, Leaf Trombonists – that’s what they’re called apparently – have created more than 1,442 compositions using Smule’s online Leaf Trombone Composer site. That’s in two weeks, compared to the six months it took Smule’s previous app Ocarina to rack up a similar number.

We’ve said this before: the idea of playing a virtual trombone may sound ridiculous, but Smule’s technology and use of connectivity is genuinely innovative on iPhone. We’re looking forward to what they come up with next.

Forget iPhone apps promoting bands, or streaming music apps, or anything serious. The best iPhone music app ever (possibly) just debuted on the App Store. It’s called Leaf Trombone World Stage, and is the work of Smule, the developer behind Ocarina.

In short, you play a virtual trombone. And then upload your best performances to an online server, where they’re marked out of ten (with added emoticon-based comments) from budding Simon Cowells around the world. Plus there’s a falling-notes Guitar Hero style tutorial.

If all this sounds silly, well, it is a bit. But in a good way. Ocarina has been hugely popular, so if Smule reckons the future of iPhone music is trombone-shaped, we certainly aren’t about to disagree with them. The app costs £0.59 here in the UK, and you can buy it by clicking here.

Remember Ocarina, the novelty iPhone music app where you blow into your iPhone’s mic to make flutey sounds?

Its developer, Smule, has revealed that more than 700,000 people have downloaded it so far at $0.99 apiece – meaning it’s made the company more than $485,000 under Apple’s 70-30 revenue-share deal.

What’s more, more than 1,200 user-created song scores have been uploaded to the Ocarina website, and their songs have been listened to more than 40 million times. No wonder Smule has expanded to ten full-time employees to make follow-up apps.