Apple has launched a brand new iOS app aimed at musicians and songwriters. It’s called Music Memos.
Available as a free download, the app is being pitched as a way for musicians to quickly record ideas – an alternative to the preloaded Voice Memos app on iOS devices, which many already use for this purpose.
“Sometimes the best ideas come when you least expect them. When those moments happen, open Music Memos to record high-quality, uncompressed audio through the built-in mic in your iPhone, or connect an external microphone,” explains Apple’s promotional site for the new app.
“Music Memos is optimised for acoustic guitar and piano, and it works with other musical instruments too.”
There are other, cleverer features in the app too: Apple says it will analyse a recording’s basic arrangement, then suggest chords for it, and provide a virtual drummer and bassist to play along. And naturally, it’s designed to be able to export everything into Apple’s GarageBand and Logic Pro X software.
Apple is already selling the idea to musicians: Ryan Adams and T-Pain are both quoted in the launch press release. And buried further down that release is another interesting aspect to the Music Memos app:
“Musicians can easily share their ideas via email or with their fans through Apple Music Connect.”
As we discovered last September, artists had been much slower than expected to use the social element of the Apple Music service, with many posting sporadically, and mainly photos or reposted Facebook or Twitter updates.
When Apple Music was announced, though, the idea of artists posting raw demos to their Connect profiles for fans to hear was one of that feature’s key selling points.
If Music Memos makes that easier, it could help artists that embrace the app – and, indeed, that embrace the idea of sharing raw demos with fans – to populate their Connect feeds. Which, in turn, could make Connect a more bustling, more exclusive-feeling environment.
That’s all potential, though. For now, musicians will be testing out Music Memos and comparing it to whatever apps they already use for their songwriting sketches.
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