(2019-06-01) Generative Music Apps Let Your Phone Write Songs For You

Generative Music Apps Let Your Phone Write Songs for You. Endel, for iOS and Android, builds on the concept of generative music to create sound environments based on your surroundings. The app pulls data from your mobile like the weather, the time of day, and your GPS location, then adjusts the sonic output to match your activity and state of mind, whether you’re at home, out walking, or driving in rush-hour traffic. It can siphon heart-rate and step data from your smartwatch and build a beat to match your pulse or footfalls

At their bleakest, the compositions can resemble goosed-up elevator music. Some of the apps produce a relentless stream of dub-techno or rigid house music, likely aimed at the college stoner crowd.

Using one of these apps is more like putting yourself in a videogame, with an adaptive score (soundtrack) that follows your avatar through the world and changes in response to the on-screen drama. The music is there not so much to be listened to and enjoyed but to help you advance to the next level.