Amplify and sync your party music with AmpMe for iOS and Android
It wouldn’t be a party without music. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford a speaker system that offers surround sound. Thanks to AmpMe this is no longer a problem. Launching today, Sept. 24, AmpMe enables both iOS and Android phones to play the same music in perfect sync. Best of all: the app is free.
With AmpMe, a party host streams their favorite tunes from SoundCloud on a mobile device. Once the host hits “Play,” friends can hear the same music on their device by entering a unique code via the app. Syncing isn’t performed through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, as one might expect. Instead, AmpMe uses a proprietary audio matching technology through microphones found on a mobile device.
Once a user puts a microphone close to the host’s speaker, the music syncs and the party is surrounded by sound. The host controls the playlist and can search for their favorite songs, artists and albums via SoundCloud.
At launch, AmpMe is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, as well as Bluetooth speakers that include a microphone. An Apple Watch app is also available, which allows party hosts to control AmpMe playback.
Don’t like SoundCloud? AmpMe promises that other streaming services will be compatible soon.
According to AmpMe founder Martin-Luc Archambault:
Music was never meant to be enjoyed by a bunch of friends crowding around a single, maxed out phone speaker … That’s why we created AmpMe: to synchronize sound from various devices so you can amplify your musical experience with friends.
We’ve been testing AmpMe using iOS and Android-based devices. Overall, the system shows great promise. Unfortunately, we ran into a few problems.
AmpMe promises that syncing between devices is a quick, flawless process. In reality, we found it cumbersome, at best. In some cases, for example, a device wouldn’t connect through AmpMe; in others, the music did play, but not in harmony. Note that these tests were performed on some of the newest mobile devices available, including an iPad Air 2, iPhone 6 Plus, and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+.
Hopefully, AmpMe will get the kinks worked out and add new streaming options soon to broaden its appeal. If they do, it could prove to be a big success.
You can download AmpMe on the App Store and through Google Play.
