One of the most promising startups to come out of the LaunchBox incubator is JamLegend, a music site with mass appeal. JamLegend takes the familiar anyone-can-be-a-rockstar model made popular by videogames like Guitar Hero and Rock Band and puts it on the Web. The site is in private beta, but we have 1,000 invites for the first people to sign up at the site with the invite code “TechCrunch.”
Once you sign up, you pick a song from a variety of genres (although right now there are only songs in rock, alternative, and acoustic) and a difficulty level. Once the song starts playing, notes come down as dots on a guitar fret, and you have to press the right buttons on your keyboard and “enter” as they pass by. You can play “Jam Style,” holding your keyboard like an air guitar, or “chill style” (see illustration.). I’d recommend chill style—you never know who might walk into the room and catch you geek rocking with your keyboard. The game will will also support game guitars plugged into our computer for serious faux fretters.
JamLegend is not connected to any video console, it’s free on the Web, and you can play against any of your friends in turn-based duels or simultaneously in showdowns (which can support thousands of simultaneous players). A small green dot at the top right of the screen alerts you when your friends are online and what they are playing. The startup is working on Facebook and MySpace apps as well.
Music artists are invited to upload their songs to the site. The biggest drawback right now is the absence of a full catalog. There are only 20 songs from three indie artists (Blue Judy, Double Stamp, and the Stolen cars), but that should grow to about 30 artists within the next few weeks. That’s about how many songs you get with Guitar Hero, and these are free. The company is still figuring out how to make money in the future, but options include some combination of charging for major-label songs just like Guitar Hero and Rock Band do, affiliate MP3 sales, advertising on the site, or a freemium subscription service to gain access to all the songs on the service.
JamLegend Trailer from JamLegend on Vimeo.
Thanks for giving us the invite code!
http://www.KidT...ru.blogspot.com
The guitar is what really makes “Guitar Hero” and the like so fun… can’t see this one lasting very long.
We tested that initially to see if people would enjoy the casual experience and it seems that the game is still fun for those folks, and playing the game Jam Style still gets you the same Rockstar feeling. Really, the most important thing is being able to have the social component of the game.
Seriously, try it out.
Nice one andrew. You’re the only one that I’m cheering on amongst the LaunchBox startups.
Sure I’ll bite… I just hope my guitar hero skills transfer well!
If FretsOnFire is a success (and it is), then there’s no reason why this won’t be. After all, this is a (more limited) fretsonfire that you don’t have to install in order to play…
Theres some work to be done… I couldnt even play. I clicked start, the circles starting going toward the bottom and they froze halfway and just bounced up and down in place. This happened 3 times.
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble playing. We have tried to test with as many computers as possible, but we are still in beta and haven’t worked out all kinks yet. Please reply or email us at support at jamlegend.com with what browser and OS you are using and we will try and figure out what is going wrong.
Thank you, TechCrunch!
Thanks for the great opportunity in testing this marvelous idea, weeeeee thanks for the invite again.
Or you could just play Frets On Fire: http://fretsonf...ourceforge.net/
Agree – this looks a lot like a Frets on Fire remake – and seeing as FoF is open-source I wouldn’t be too surprised if any code was ‘borrowed’.
Played it for a short time and have to say, it sucks. Games like this are ALL about the user interface and gameplay. Herky-jerky graphics, coupled with the anti-interface add up to a pile of digital garbage. You know, maybe I’ll do a live show on this at plexav.com.
I’m hoping the the new trend will be for more big-name games to be available for free over the internet. That way parents won’t be as pressured to to spend the big bucks on expensive consoles.
Do you really think they can do it that BIG ?
Is it even loading now ?. Coz , i am stuck at the first screen partially opened ; like for 15 mins .
Yup, they’re having load issues… TechCrunched!
LOl
DOA
I like this, I can also see the potential of it becoming quite viral especially in my group of friends. Good job.
i love guitar hero, so why not
it’s ok but the songs are quite laggy to play
also, support for the game guitars would be great
Website loading quite slowly, getting hammered from this TechCrunch post… but once you get in, pretty fun! Nice interface, good indie tunes, good time.
Try guitar hero for the DS – very addicting.
http://afewtips.com
Phew .Loaded after a while . The 1000 invites will fall short in minutes !. Well , i like the Guitar Hero series . So , the songs they have picked are nice enough . Though the lag part adds to the woe .
Bah:
“Foo Brew reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of these Terms at any time and from time to time without specific notice to you other than through posting such modified terms on the Website. Please check these Terms and any Guidelines periodically for changes. The most current and controlling Terms and Guidelines are posted on the Website and indicate the date last modified. Your continued use of the JamLegend Service after the posting of changes constitutes your binding acceptance of such changes.”
So, you actually want your users to sign a blank contract? Sorry, I don’t think so…
well, even your website isnt loading
Thanks for the opportunity in testing this idea, thx for the invite.
I managed to complete one song (almost taking the high score mind you) and immediately grabbed my guitar and PS2-to-USB adapter. I definitely want to give this another shot when it quits throwing 500 errors out.
Sorry everyone. We definitely got slammed with traffic. We are working as fast as possible to smooth things out.
Could somebody please send me an invite mail? You could use my website to contact with me with this link: http://www.aziz...e.com/iletisim/
Thank You !
Once I got in, I did like the experience (load issues did degrade the game, but hope they smooth it out over next 24 hours). Free is good – hell, free is great!
Was wondering about the indie music, but they did a good job surfacing content that made me want to rock on.
Agree with Michael Wales – next step is hooking up my “guitar” – probably will wait till Friday for that
And I’m in! Hooray! Thanks for the invite TechCrunch, this looks awesome!
I love when the members of a startup comment on their own review. Really a pretty cool thing, to have the more or less independent article, honest comments, and feedback from creators.
I tried it once, and it worked fine for me. The keyboard takes some getting used to, but it is kind of the novelty of it almost.
What would actually bring me back to this site would be 1. A HUGE catalog where I can find less popular songs to play and 2. The ability for users to create their own song programs (with some sort of control so we don’t get a bunch of random “notes” that don’t coordinate.)
I know both of those are difficult with copyright issues, but that is what would bring me back.
Clayton, have you been hiding in the walls? Those are definitely two things we’re looking to do in the future.
Yay! Thanks for the invite! Took the site forever to load but now that I’m in, I’m looking forward to playing this. I have a PS2 to USB adapter so I’ll be able to use my PS2 GH controller. I did that too with FoF. It works fine and make it more fun.
Hey everybody, We’re trying out a bunch of stuff to handle all the traffic, so thanks for hanging with us in the meantime!
Hey, since Wiimotes work on bluetooth, and they’ve made hacks to use wiimotes on a PC, is it possible to hook up a Wii Guitar to a computer and play this using a wii guitar?
Cause if it is, I’m all about this.
Yes, it is, and it’s remarkably simple. You can use Darwiin Remote on a Mac (http://sourcefo...darwiin-remote/) to map the buttons on the guitar to the 1-5 keys, and the strum button to the enter key. That’s all it takes! Not sure about PC software for connecting wiimotes, but it probably exists.
The website is down. I was going to review this on T3chlusive, but I can’t if the website is down. Please get the website back up.
[root $] init 6
Thanks for the invite…complete crash.
Maybe some ISP or Akamai could parter with TechCrunch to offer rapid-response bandwith for sites mentioned on TechCrunch for 24-48 hours.
Give the site advanced notice to decide if they want to purchase the bandwidth (negotiated at a discount) and TechCrunch gets a bit off the top. Akamai (or whoever gets some sponsorship mention in the post as well as the cash.
Wouldn’t solve overloaded DBMS servers, but it is a start.
This is gonna be HUGE.
Works fine for me. Pretty fun. The first thought through my mind was “‘Wow, this is a *lot* like http://www.flas...revolution.com/ ” (basically DDR with arrow keys).
I just gave it a try. Not very impressed though. This is one of the somethings you can do if you want to kill time but since guitar hero is just one step away from me ( i mean my PS2 is right here at my work desk), I’d rather play guitar hero than this. The notes doesn’t even time with the song which makes it not too enjoyable.
Congrats guys! This is great news! Hopefully, ShareMeme will have a similar fate soon!
I love guitar hero. And now someone’s here to make things even better! Congrats!
Wow, what a fantastic idea! I can definitely see this one taking off in a very major way. Good luck, guys!
So addicting and the guys behind it really know what they’re doing. The only tricky part could be monetization but I’m sure they’ll figure it out.
Who would have thought 5 years ago that one of the hottest recent startups would have to do with DDR/Guitar Hero. Hilarious.
JamLegend just crashed . . . .guess it couldn’t handle the “Crunch” . . .
A homerun for the casual gamer. This is so addicting.
It’s awesome!! But the site is crashed
Cant wait for the copycats
they seem like copycats
why not go after an entire new niche…
I see the keyboard much more like a piano, or possibly a drum kit.
in other words, pianohero
That is actually on its way. We agree that piano is the most natural form factor for the computer but we decided to start with Guitar since there are so many more songs that feature it.
Didn’t work. Have the 1,000 been expended? Crap.
What.
It gave me an error at first, “Invalid Code,”
Then when I tried again I got “too late :O”
Goddamn it, I better not have *JUST* missed it. I’m already pretty PO’d to tell the truth.
Nope, it went out sometime around/before 10am PDT
Well that’s kind of annoying. I signed up when the site was a day old for an invite. Tweeted about it on the first day (search.twitter.com) go to the last page and you can see that joedeveloper tweeted about “I want to play jamlegend”.
I’ve been told that I am at the top of the list and yet… no invite code yet. This sucks. And all of the invite codes are used up.
Everyone that got invited got 1 invite. If your nice I am sure someone would give you theirs. Don’t ask me though, I already sent mine to a friend.
thanks.i need one
It says there used all up.
Fun game. I was surprised that I didn’t feel any more lame doing this than I do while playing guitar hero. I wouldn’t say that I felt “everybody was watching” as the promo video claimed, but that low-investment solitude was sort of nice. In the future, I could just take a brief break and pull up the bookmark. I’m not a gamer at all, but I’d do this.
wouldn’t mind sendig an invite !. hit me up on the twitter .
twitter.com/Cheezespread