Music Ally

2009 was the year of the App Store, as Apple passed the two-billion downloads milestone for its store, which now has more than 100,000 apps available. 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 the Music 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.

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Never one to miss a chance to make money through new technology, Soulja Boy Tell’Em is the latest artist to launch an iPhone app. He’s teamed up with developer Moderati for an app that lets fans remix three of his songs by muting or soloing individual elements while triggering seven samples.

More interestingly, they can then share their versions via email or Facebook. “If you’re looking at our target demo, our consumer for music, I think kids are going to be more and more interested in doing something interactive,” says Christian Jorg, head of digital at Island Def Jam Music Group.

We agree: the first wave of artist-focused iPhone apps were purely promotional, but more recent efforts have introduced a lot more interactivity. Remixing is a popular theme – trance star BT recently launched his own Sonifi app, while David Bowie will soon launch one allowing fans to twiddle about with Space Oddity.

Interscope Geffen A&M is launching iPhone applications for five of its key artists, through a partnership with mobile firm Kyte. The five are Lady Gaga, the Pussycat Dolls, Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, the All American Rejects, and Keri Hilson.

The free apps include video content from the artists’ Kyte channels, as well as branding and advertising, click-through links to buy music and merchandise, a built-in RSS reader to pull in news updates, and community features like chat, comments and sharing.

“Kyte allows us to easily deliver iPhone and iPod touch apps that connect our artists with their fans in a fully immersive, interactive experience,” says Ted Mico, executive vice president of digital for IGA. “Fans will be able to watch exclusive, behind the scenes content, chat in real-time, and purchase artist content, all from their iPhone and iPod touch.”

The apps came about through Kyte’s deal with Interscope Geffen A&M’s parent company Universal Music Group. Although artists’ Kyte sites have been accessible through mobile web browsers for some time, this is the first time individual artists’ content has been packaged up into apps.

The apps are due to be live on the App Store today. Kyte will be offering the technology behind them as a turnkey service for other artists and labels in the coming months. We caught up with Kyte’s Daniel Graf at Mobile World Congress last week for a hands-on demo and to talk more about the thinking behind them. Stand by for a post covering that interview.