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Brands & Merch Business News Digital
Fender launches new Apple Music-powered guitar practice app
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 23 October 2019
Fender has launched a new subscription-based app called Fender Songs which allows users to play along to their favourite songs (or even ones they don’t like) on guitar, ukulele or piano. Pulling tracks in from Apple Music, the app overlays chords, lyrics and other features to assist musicians of all levels in their practicing.
The new app complements the company’s other subscription service, guitar tuition platform Fender Play. It is enabled by an assortment of deals and partnerships, including agreements with music publishers like Sony/ATV, Warner Chappell, Kobalt and BMG, and some labels too, including Warner Music.
The instrument firm also reckons it has AI technology that can identify the chords in pretty much any song, so that you aren’t limited to a small catalogue of music.
“Fender Songs, we believe, will enable players to easily and dramatically expand their song repertoire”, says Andy Mooney, Chief Executive Officer of Fender. “Goldman Sachs forecasts the number of streaming subscribers to hit 700 million in three years and top one billion by 2030; these are staggering numbers that bode well for Fender’s success in both the digital and analogue worlds”.
Layering a second paid subscription on top of an existing premium music account is also obviously attractive for rightsholders looking to extract more money out of streaming.
“We’re excited to expand our digital products offering with Fender Songs. Songs will allow our players to access practically any song they want and provide quick and easy-to-learn chords they can practice directly on the app”, adds Ethan Kaplan, General Manager of Fender Digital. “Working with Apple Music, publishers and record labels, we’ve been able to ensure artist songs are fully licensed, taking our relationships with them to a new level”.
Getting this service off the ground has required various other partnerships too, including with 7Digital, LyricFind, Music Story, Music Reports, Amazon’s API Gateway and Lambda Serverless, Dynamo DB, AWSCognito, ElasticSearch and more. Which is a lot of paperwork. Well done to Fender’s paperwork crew.
Currently only available in the US, Fender Songs costs $4.99 per month or $41.99 for a twelve month subscription.
