It's hard not to think that the Populele smart ukulele was designed with Millennials in mind. Created by New York-based Popuband Music Inc., this ukulele pairs with a smartphone app and uses LED lights to help beginners quickly become pros. The Populele app features games designed to help make learning the ukulele's chords easier, with the LED lights showing exactly where fingers need to be placed.
Once users are comfortable with the basics of the Populele smart ukulele they can raid the app's library of 100+ songs. The app also features a recording function so that performance can be saved and shared to social media. The Populele smart ukulele is well on its way to meeting its funding goal on Indiegogo. Once funded Popuband is going to roll out its next project, the aptly named Poputar.
Intelligent String Instruments
The Populele Smart Ukulele's App and LEDs Trim the Learning Curve
Trend Themes
1. Smart Music Instruments - The Populele smart ukulele demonstrates the market potential for smart music instruments that integrate with smartphone apps and use LED lights for interactive learning.
2. Gamified Learning - The Populele app's gamified approach to learning chords presents opportunities for other musical instrument manufacturers to incorporate interactive games into their learning platforms.
3. Social Sharing of Performances - The recording and social sharing features of the Populele app highlight the growing demand for music instruments that enable users to easily record and share their performances on social media.
Industry Implications
1. Music Instrument Manufacturing - The success of the Populele smart ukulele suggests that music instrument manufacturers should explore the development of smart instruments and complementary smartphone apps to cater to tech-savvy musicians.
2. Education Technology - The gamified learning approach of the Populele app presents opportunities for education technology companies to develop interactive learning platforms for music education.
3. Social Media Platforms - The social sharing features of the Populele app indicate opportunities for social media platforms to collaborate with music instrument companies to facilitate easy sharing and promotion of musical performances.