On the 12th of November, Creative Commons Japan, with the cooperation of iPhone developer Appliya Studio, has developed and released the “AudioVisual Mixer for INTO INFINITY”, a free iPhone application that extends the concept of the original art project INTO INFINITY initiated by Creative Commons US and net radio collective Dublab. (http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/19225)
With this app, users can interact intuitively with more than 150 sounds and images pieces provided to the project from cutting edge artists worldwide, including brand new works from Japan, all licensed under a CC:BY-NC license. When you let the app run by itself, it acts like a web radio, by randomly streaming and shuffling sound pieces; you can then select which pieces to play and adjust volumes to create your favorite mixes, which can be easily uploaded to the web and share you’re your friends via Twitter or email.
The app has collected very positive feedbacks from users (mainly from Japan and US), and has been downloaded more than 30,000 times across over 60 nations. About 1,500 mixes have been created and posted to Twitter, and 1,200 mixes have been shared through emails. In the last week of November, the app was ranked 1st position in free music app category and 8th position in the general free app category (limited to Japan). Currently, the app is gradually spreading to other regions mainly via viral (Twitter and blogs).
The first reason I initiated this iPhone app project was to celebrate the Japan tour of INTO INFINITY (that took place in early December in Tokyo and Sapporo), but another ambition was to expand the possibility of remixing Creative Commons licensed contents to a mobile platform. Through various Creative Commons workshops we have conducted in and out Tokyo in the past (http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7666), we have noticed that the act of remixing contents is still limited to autodidactic enthusiasts that have access to the necessary tools and literacy; the majority of regular users are not accustomed to building upon other people’s works. For this issue, this iPhone app’s interface sets a very low entry barrier for people to start remixing, and INTO INFINITY’s rich and growing archive of quality works is a highly attractive content in itself.
We hope to see more users participating to this remix chain, hopefully into infinity. Please spread the word!
Direct URL to the iPhone app: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=338225050&mt=8
(or search “INTO INFINITY” in Apple’s iTunes AppStore)
Latest mixes and buzzes available at: http://creativecommons.jp/i2i/
(Check the "Files" in the bottom of this page for more photos)
