Topline Brand New iOS App
The free app has been designed to help musicians catch ideas instantly and precisely, and sketch out the beginning of a song as it happens. Users can share files easily, sing over imported tracks, add lyrics, tags and pictures, find previous work at speed, and always have space for new ideas by synching songs to the cloud. To develop Topline, Abbey Road Studios worked closely with emerging songwriters and producers from across London to understand their creative needs.
They all shared a big concern about losing original song ideas – either through not being able to capture them easily when they occurred or by finding it impossible to locate them later. The studio decided to solve this challenge for artists by designing its own app.
“At Abbey Road Studios, we recognise that music production has changed dramatically as a result of the digital revolution, wider accessibility of recording technology and direct distribution routes and the boom of DIY culture,” said Dominika Dronska, Senior Digital Manager at Abbey Road.
“As the recording process changes in ever dynamic ways, music making becomes more democratic. We want to ensure that Abbey Road remains at the heart, and are actively looking for new ways to take our expertise beyond the walls of Abbey Road to support and enable creativity across all groups of music makers. With this in mind, we got to work with a group of unsigned DIY artists from London to understand their methods and challenges.
“Topline is our answer to the most pressing of those challenges, a need to quickly capture and collaborate on song ideas, which we co-designed with the musicians. While we discovered that their production processes are as differentiated as their recording set ups. They all care about their song ideas the most, and equally they struggle to capture them.
“This sounded like a challenge that Abbey Road could readily solve to boost creativity for writers and producers globally and to connect ‘the stars of tomorrow’ who no doubt will be coming through the doors sooner than we expect. “Just consider how many good songs remain trapped forever in old notepads, dictaphones and even voicemails. With Topline, from Abbey Road Studios, we can unlock that genius.”
You can download Abbey Roads Studios’ Topline app for free here.