Smule expands to Android with Songify for Google Play

The launch of the Songify Android app marks Smule's first venture onto the Android platform

Whatever happened to Antoine Dodson from the Bed Intruder song?  He rocked my 2010. 

It looks like he used his massive fame and fortune to invest in a flat iron and some glamor shots.

Now, Android users can become the Antoine Dodsons of tomorrow with the launch of Smule’s Songify app for Android—the very first of Smule’s apps to make the leap over to Google. 

Launched originally for iOS in July 2011 by Khush, the Songify app uses artificial intelligence to turn spoken words into a song, much the same way Dodson’s flamboyant rant was “songified.”  Smule acquired Khush in December 2011, and now Smule is bringing this musical awesome sauce to Android.

But more importantly, this marks the first time that Smule has released an app for Android since the company’s founding in 2008.

"In general, we were concerned that adopting a second platform too early would throttle our ability to innovate,” CEO Jeff Smith told me.  “We build extremely immersive experiences which fully exploit what the hardware has to offer.  It's hard to do so when you are aiming for the lowest common denominator across multiple platforms.  Therefore, we waited until we had more scale and for the platform to mature."

To date, the app has been downloaded nine million times by iPhone users, who have created 120 million songs on iOS.  Smule has 45 million users across all of its apps.

The Android app will also feature Android-only perks, such as the ability to turn your song into a ringtone or share it via SMS or Google+.

“For us, a great platform needs killer hardware, good SDK, critical mass, and distribution,” said Smule co-founder and CTO Dr. Ge Wang.  “Apple has provided all four and continues to lead. At the same time, the critical mass on Android has become very interesting to us.  At the end of the day, we are here to bring music-making to as many people as possible, and we need as big of a user base as possible.”

Wang added that the platform has more focused needs to create the desired music experience for users, specifically low audio and interaction latency, which has made it challenging to develop for Android.

Smule’s expansion into Android will also include the Magic Piano app in early June.