That's my Jam
Chris Boning
Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: TruLife
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Earlier last month the company launched Jam Legend, a music gaming Web site free to anyone with an Internet connection and a passion for music.
Twenty-three-year-old Lee said he and his co-developers came up with Jam Legend after repeatedly encountering one of the fundamental hassles of the conventional music game "Guitar Hero."
"In any start-up back in the old days people would have foosball tables, but nowadays we have 'Rock Band' or 'Guitar Hero,'" he said. "While we were working in the office, we'd play 'Guitar Hero,' but the main problem was that with 'Guitar Hero,' we were sort of tethered to our living room."
Lee added that the relatively high price of conventional music games, the inability to play online without the right console and a noticeable lack of musical diversity on "Guitar Hero" also influenced the creation of Jam Legend.
"If you're not such a big fan of classic rock, 'Guitar Hero' might not be the thing for you, but if you're a really big fan of U2 or if you're a huge fan of Coldplay, our hope is that our site is where you can play those songs," he said.
Lee said that along with more mainstream acts, he also is actively recruiting indie bands that might be looking for recognition because the company will convert any MP3s a band might wish to upload into the playable format specific to Jam Legend.
"If you're a band and you're trying to figure out how to drive up sales or trying to figure out how you can get people to know you more, 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Band' are good [places] to do it, and Jam Legend is an easier place to do it," he said.
The company also is developing a downloadable Jam Legend widget for Myspace, in addition to expanding the number of playable instruments and musical genres represented on Jam Legend, Lee said. He added that users on the site eventually will be able to form bands online and compete against other similar groups.
Lee said creating Jam Legend just made sense because the future of music is connected to Internet gaming.
"When you're listening to a song, you tap [along] to the song probably, or you probably hum a tune," he said. "Everyone wants to be a rock star, but unfortunately people can't play music as great as a rock star. ... We want to give you that experience. Playing music is too hard, but playing music games is not."
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