Think you’ve got what it takes to compete on The Voice or American Idol, but aren’t quite ready to go prime time?
You can always hit the shower. And now you can take your favorite renditions from those water-soaked sessions and see what the world really thinks (anonymously) without getting a blistering response from the likes of Christina Aguilera.
Fresh off its big win at the Startup Weekend event in Seattle, Showr is a yet-to-be-released iOS and Android app that basically allows people to sing into the microphone of the device and then easily upload the anonymous clips to a Web-based community for review.
“What’s the point of singing in the shower? It’s the fact that no one is around, and I can just belt it. It’s the anonymity,” said co-creator Kory Tegman, a Web design student at Seattle Central Community College. “The shower is a metaphor for being able to anonymously sing in front of people, and get voted on how you sing.”
Most of the team behind Showr comes from Student RND, the technology incubator that we’ve featured in the past. The site is still in development, having just been spawned at Startup Weekend.
I gave it a try at a Startup Weekend gathering last night, going to my old standby karaoke favorite “Okie from Muskogee” by Merle Haggard. At this time, the company is still testing the service, so not sure you’ll find my rendition on the site anytime soon. (And I just gave away my anonymity anyway).
Tegman said the audio quality is great on the iPhone, using compressed WAV files. And when I heard the playback of my song, I wasn’t completely shamed.
It’s still pretty early to call Showr a business, but the company is already kicking around a few ideas to make money, including in-app purchases for background music or auto tuning.
There’s also the possibility to create competitions, say having West Coast crooners versus East Coast rappers.
A first-time participant in the 54-hour Startup Weekend event, Tegman said he had a blast helping to create the concept. “It was brain overload,” he said. “I was like: ‘Wow, we just pulled that together really fast.'”
