Smule’s Leaf Trombone User Community Already Becoming an Essential Part of the Application

Smule (www.smule.com) announced today that its Leaf Trombone World Stage application, the world’s first massively multi-player musical game for the iPhone and iPod touch, is seeing unprecedented levels of user participation and contributions since the product’s release on April 17th. The number of user performances and shared compositions is already outpacing Smule’s hugely popular Ocarina application, demonstrating a rare example of an iPhone app in which the community actually helps build the product’s value proposition through their contributions and interaction.

To date, Leaf Trombonists have performed over 100,000 times on the World Stage, being judged by fellow Leaf Trombonists and accumulating standings within the user base. The community has quickly embraced the gaming elements of the application, making the already compelling musical instrument a richly interactive experience.

In addition to performing, users of Leaf Trombone have already created more than 1,442 compositions using Smule’s new online Leaf Trombone Composer. This surge in user contributions has occurred in only two weeks — a huge leap from the1,450 Ocarina compositions users have shared in the six months since Ocarina was released.

The Composer, which is available free for Leaf Trombone users, is a sophisticated, browser-based tool. Leaf Trombonists can build complex musical tracks for Leaf Trombone (including accompaniment for the music box), save their creations online, and publish them. Fellow trombonists can then access these compositions directly through the application on their iPhone or iPod touch. Composers can even import their favorite Ocarina scores with the Leaf Trombone Composer. Check it out at: http://app.smule.com/ltr/composer/.

Some examples of user generated compositions include:

Oh Canada:
http://app.smule.com/musicbox/viewsong/62/

Super Mario Brothers Theme:
http://app.smule.com/musicbox/viewsong/1478/

Auld Lang Syne:
http://app.smule.com/musicbox/viewsong/30/

To date, Leaf Trombone has reached the Top Ten in 13 Apple App Stores worldwide, including the United States, France, Portugal, Germany, and the UK among others. In addition, yesterday Apple named Leaf Trombone the Apple App Store “Pick of the Week” http://www.apple.com/hotnews/

Please let me know if you’re interested in a review copy of Leaf Trombone or would like to speak with Dr. Ge Wang, founder and CTO of Smule. He’s also a Stanford professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) and director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (http://slork.stanford.edu/media/), and the author of the Chuck audio programming language.

Thanks,
Tammy Chan

Tammy Chan | Atomic PR

Direct: 212-699-3646

Mobile: 408-802-8682

tammy {at} atomicpr(.)com

About Leaf Trombone World Stage
Following up on the hugely popular Ocarina, Smule takes the “iPhone-as-instrument” concept to a whole new level with the Leaf Trombone, one of the broadest, deepest games now available on the iPhone platform. Using Leaf Trombone World Stage, users can learn an instrument, perform it for people around the world, judge their fellow players, and compose and publish their own work. Smule is seeing unprecedented traction with Leaf Trombone- with the number of new, user-generated compositions and performances already outpacing the Ocarina.
See the app in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV0fmNo7474.

International App Store Rankings as of April 28 at 5 PM Pacific Time:
Argentina #8
Belgium #8
Canada #8
France #6
Germany #6
India #8
Jamaica #9
Latin America #9
Mexico #9
Portugal #5
Sweden #10
UK #5
US #9

About Smule
SonicMule, Inc. (Smule), is a premier developer of interactive sonic applications for the iPhone with headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Founded in June, 2008 and backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Maples Investments and Granite Ventures, Smule has created an innovative mobile audio platform, enabling a new generation of applications for the iPhone. More information about Smule can be found on the Internet at http://www.smule.com/. Smule, Sonic Network, and Sonic Lighter are trademarks of SonicMule, Inc. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. iPhone and Appstore are trademarks of Apple Computer.