Jacob Hall, Editor-in-Chief of TapSauce | APPS | 06.20.2012 @ 1:00 pm
The App: Songify
The Device: iPhone
The Price: Free
The Basics: Considering the rise of autotune and the amount of really crappy music it has inspired, an app like Songify was inevitable. Now, you too can have your limited talents transformed into music! In all fairness, Songify isn’t meant to be used to create crummy pop music, but rather to let you humorously modify anything you say/sing into a song. The app’s creators have already used to great effect, “songifying” popular YouTube videos and news reports to the tune of millions of hits. But how is the app itself?
The Review: Songify is a solid, well-designed, nice looking app that performs as advertised. However, for what’s ultimately a pretty slight service, it sure does ask for a lot of monetary commitment in the long run.
Initially, Songify is the victim of some obnoxious branding (the title screen reeks of, for lack of better phrase, “hipster douchebaggery”), but once you actually get into the meat of the app, it’s all perfectly fine. The main page is occupied by a massive circular button radiating out from the Songify logo with three smaller buttons underneath it. The smaller buttons let you select your musical track, buy more tracks and search for uploaded songs from other users. The large button will immediately start recording.
Naturally, the large recording button is the bread and butter of the app. Once you tap it, the button starts spinning via some very satisfying animation and everything you say is recorded. You can try actually singing or you can just endlessly say “Hello? Hello? Hello?” or you can run the app secretly while you have a personal conversation with loved one. When you’re finished, the app will take a moment to “songify” your recording to the track of your choice and voila! You have yourself an original (and most likely terrible) song.
As a comedy app, Songify will certainly get you and your friends giggling as you transform your favorite inside jokes into danceable pop and hip hop songs. Although the technology is impressive, there’s not much more to it beyond that. Still, the app is free, right? Well, sort of.
When you first download it, Songify offers two tracks for free and has many others available for purchase at 99 cents apiece. Now, 99 cents for a an actual song bought through iTunes is one thing, but 99 cents for a backing track for a musical novelty app? Ugh. Although I dig Songify, I’m just going to stick with the default, incredibly limited musical library.
The Final Grade: B