ADE’s Companies 2 Watch (C2W), in partnership with Paylogic, hosted their annual ADE Tech competition at this years’ ADE. We round up the five tech companies who pitched to win the event.
There’s life outside the clubs of Amsterdam. There is indeed far more to the Amsterdam Dance Event than you might initially have thought. There is even a daytime schedule packed with seminars, studio features and keynotes that cover all manner of topics across the dance music industry.
Last week we attended the DeLaMar theatre to hear five companies pitch their new music technology ideas to a discerning panel including Werner Vogels – Amazon vice president and chief technology officer, Q&A co-founder and director Suzy Ryoo and last year’s C2W winner, Amuse CEO Diego Farias. Full marks goes to the competitive yet friendly format (the winner being voted for by the audience) as well as an appreciative nod for the enjoyable hosting courtesy of School of House founder DJ Jama.
In no particular order, we round up what each company offered and why they are worth looking out for.
Audionamix
Audionamix is a company specialising in audio source separation.
Their technology, ADX Technology, allows content owners to unmix and isolate melodic and spoken elements from a master recording. In short, if you wish to separate the stems in a full mixed WAV file then Audionamix is the plugin for you as well as millions of other sample hungry producers.
We were a little disappointed not to see a live demo instead being treated to pre-made demo. It would have been interesting for an audience member to supply an audio file and for everyone to watch it work live and in real time – I.E let the plugin do all the talking. However, the results of the pre-made demo – a Marvin Gaye track – were impressive. The clarity on the vocal, separated from its original track, was without any noticeable artefacts.
Audionamix went on to win the audience vote. At $99 it’s priced competitively but note their user agreement regarding copyright as this is a sample minefield and Audionamix are rightly not liable for any unregistered samples obtained from using their plugin.
For more information, visit their website or watch the video below.
Jambl
Our favourite pitch but sadly just not our favourite product.
Jambl was characteristically pitched by rapping CEO Gad Baruchs and in terms of presentation was miles ahead of the competition.
Jambl is a fun multiplayer music making app and winner of the prestigious Midemlab award for music creation and education earlier this year.
Jambl lets you create beats on your phone and share your music alongside a music video. With no musical experience required, at the tap of a few buttons you can easily piece together something to impress your friends with. On the video side, the video will automatic edit video in time with your music. Make music, make video and share with minimal fuss.
Sound like fun? Check out the video below or visit their website.
Marble
The “first Augmented Reality platform for everyday use”.
Marble AR, founded by Tom Bruckner and Paul Wehner, lets you use your phone to pin floating AR spheres (known as marbles) in the world around you and load them with your photo or video content. Others you connect with can then unlock when they visit the locations.
This works well when you want to drop a meaningful song in a location that has importance to you such as a concert of sports venue. It draws similarities to Pokémon GO and the founder described it as Pokémon GO “for brands.”
Marble is the “first Augmented Reality platform for everyday use” and aims to bridge the real world to existing ecosystems creating a unique place for location-based and engagement marketing. AR minded musicians might find this an innovative marketing app to leave behind digital gifts for their super fans.
Visit Marble here or watch the video below.
Fangage
Fangage offers musicians a platform to take control over their own fan data and the ability to analyze, engage and monetise their fanbase.
Founded in 2016 in Amsterdam, the growth has been impressive and has timed well with social media companies tightening organic reach over the past few years.
With Fangage users can take control and get beyond those pesky algorithms. Anything that wrestles back control from Facebook and puts marketing control in the hands of the artists gets the thumbs up from Attack.
Fangage also offers a wealth of native marketing features that makes it comparable to Mailchimp in some aspects but with a distinctive music edge. Created by popular DJ Sam Feldt, it’s made principally with musicians in mind but can work well for vloggers alike.
See how Fangage could work for you here.
SendMusic
SendMusic was our pick to win but sadly that sentiment was not shared by the audience or the panel.
SendMusic, as the name implies, aims to make the digital sharing of music easier and through one platform. Anyone who’s inbox is clogged with submissions or collaboration ideas will quickly see how this might benefit them.
How it works:
- Drag & drop files onto SendMusic
- Add the email address of who you’d like to receive your music
- Set the files to stream only or download
- Decide how long until the file expires – 1 day or 1 week (or 1 month with a free account)
- Press send and send an email to your recipient letting them know they’ve got music
- Send more than one file and it turns up as a playlist
- Send more than one file to download and you can easily download everything as a zip file
Sound helpful? Try sending some music to your friends here.
For more information on ADE and how it could help you further your career, visit their website here.