When we try to adjust the beat of a song, its quality usually degrades. Going for a faster tempo leads to the “chipmunk effect”, where the pitch of instruments and voices goes up. And with lower tempos, the mood of the song moves towards the score of a scary movie.
Weav Music, founded by Elomida Visviki and Google Maps co-creator Lars Rasmussen, developed a patent-pending technology to adjust a song's tempo within 60 to 240 beats-per-minute, without degrading it. In fact, as the tempo changes the song is enhanced along dimensions like energy and mood. And today, in a strong sign of support from the industry, Weav is announcing partnerships with Warner Music and Sony Music to feature selected songs in its running app: Weav Run. Experiments are also underway with Universal Music Group. Check out the new "weaved" songs by downloading the app (only iOS in US for now) and a sample video below:
Weav Run just touches the surface on the many possible uses of the technology for music fans and artists. Imagine, for example, the trials and tribulations that dancers go through when trying to adapt a song to a specific choreography. Les Twins, finalists of the first season of the reality show World of Dance produced by Jennifer Lopez, tried changing Michael Jackson’s songs to the choreography shown below. As you can hear, the music degrades, which doesn’t help the performance. (Listen without watching; doesn’t sound very good right? If it wasn’t for the talent of Les Twins…) But the alternative for them would be to adapt the choreography to the pace of the song instead, which would limit their creativity.
Let's turn to the use cases for other professional creatives. Think of the tremendous possibilities for film and TV producers, who constantly have to sync music to a scene. Rather than having to produce a new composition or revised version of an existing one, they just need to digitally produce a few rearrangements of the song at different tempos, turn the dial of the beat up or down with the app, and voila!
Weav will increase the creative freedom of musicians and DJs too. Rasmussen states, “You can more easily produce a fusion of genres because you can adjust the tempos of the different genres.” He adds, “Devices have reached a stage where there is a possible shift to think of a record as a recipe that you can personalize or customize for a specific situation. Being able to adapt a song is as if you have the band with you.” And musicians benefit because there is higher monetization per song produced.
Creative minds love freedom and Weav provides it for music rearrangements. The company is very optimistic, as it reflected on today's press release: "Apps for all manners of fitness, meditation, dance, video games, virtual reality and much more will be built around it." With the backing of music labels, the odds are suddenly in their favor.
