Innovation for music’s sake — an overview of projects from Abbey Road Studios’ hackathon
It was a real breakthrough! On Nov 10–11th, Abbey Road Studios organised their first-ever hackathon in the headquarters of the legendary recording leader. The event aimed to discover innovative ways of using new technologies to solve the daily problems of music creators.
The 24-hour challenge started on Saturday at Studio 1. Nearly 100 participants from all over the world were working in teams to find out solutions revolutionising music production.
Data Science facilitating music industry
Hackathon Abbey Road Studios was organised in a very important time in the music industry, named by Financial Times ‘the moneyball moment.’ Emerging technologies let us gather and process vast amounts of data considering users’ preferences or current trends. This fact brings new opportunities for multimedia.
‘The industry was slow to change, but this move towards data science through streaming has changed everything. Today, I hope Abbey Road can change the course of music history once again.’ said Krzysztof Gudowski, Business Developer at Miquido.
And he was right. Red Hackathon gave birth to a number of innovative projects focusing on accessibility, users’ cooperation and personalised UX.
Accessibility of music production
One of the most exciting projects was Face Beat, which uses facial recognition to let you create music with your mimics. Another idea addressing people with challenges was a T-shirt enabling its users to produce sound through chest sensors and body heat.
It’s also hard not to mention Kris Halpin, who performed on stage presenting Mi. Mu Gloves. The solution lets him play anything from the drums and bass to piano chords without using the physical instrument. It’s a real breakthrough for musicians with disabilities, having difficulties with moves or precision.
Collaboration and intuitive UX
In terms of collaboration, the absolute winner was HRMI. It’s a network where people could play different virtual instruments together, through their laptops. The project won a prize for “the most user-friendly UX” and got 2000 GBP from Miquido — the Gold Sponsor of Abbey Road Studios’ hackathon.
Another project simplifying the creative process was Lyra. The real-time lyric-generator is extracting metadata from social activities and voice messages to help lyricists find inspirations.
The prize for “the best use of AI” went to “Rapple.” The app generated rap lyrics mimicking your own style of rhythms. The effect? An AI-based rap battle between a user and computer. You make up your line, and within 15 seconds the app hits its line back.
“If we keep working on the idea, to adapt the AI to speak in the voice of a specific musician, then it could have a huge potential. The scaled version of Rapple could be integrated into popular apps such as e.g. Snapchat”- says one of the developers.
To take a deep dive into a detailed relation from the event follow Miquido’s Facebook and Twitter or check out #RedHackathon.
Originally published at blog.miquido.com on November 20, 2018.
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