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Digital music score platform PiaScore releases version 4.0, aims for 1M downloads

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See the original article in Japanese PiaScore is a digital music score platform from Japan. Its first iPad app was released back in December of 2010, and an iPhone version followed in May of 2013. The total number of downloads grew rapidly, to date accumulating more than half million downloads. Version 4.0 of the app was recently released on January 24th. PiaScore has many remarkable features for musicians. Not only can a user view musical scores, but they can jot notes over them, or use gestures to turn pages (iPad only). They can download over 70,000 classical scores for free as well. The app is used by a wide range of people including professional musicians the world over, educators, or just anyone who enjoys music as a hobby. Its App Store is vert high, with 4.5 points out of 5.0 given by users in Japan, the US, the UK, and China. Some new features have been added in this most recent update, including the ability to import scores, or to organize scores using playlists or tags. The design has also been renewed, and in total the company has added over 100 improvements. By paying attention to their users’ needs, PiaScore…

PiaScore

See the original article in Japanese

PiaScore is a digital music score platform from Japan. Its first iPad app was released back in December of 2010, and an iPhone version followed in May of 2013. The total number of downloads grew rapidly, to date accumulating more than half million downloads. Version 4.0 of the app was recently released on January 24th.

PiaScore has many remarkable features for musicians. Not only can a user view musical scores, but they can jot notes over them, or use gestures to turn pages (iPad only). They can download over 70,000 classical scores for free as well.

The app is used by a wide range of people including professional musicians the world over, educators, or just anyone who enjoys music as a hobby. Its App Store is vert high, with 4.5 points out of 5.0 given by users in Japan, the US, the UK, and China.

Some new features have been added in this most recent update, including the ability to import scores, or to organize scores using playlists or tags. The design has also been renewed, and in total the company has added over 100 improvements. By paying attention to their users’ needs, PiaScore has managed to retain its position as one of the most useful apps in the music field.

piaScore-playlists-tags

You might think that only professional musicians would make frequent use of such an app. But the monthly active rate of its users overall is fairly high at 20%. The CEO of Plus-Add (the company the makes PiaScore) Hiroyuki Koike played piano when he was young, and his personal experience and understanding has contributed to his winning the support of many music lovers. He tells us:

Many of people in music are not very familiar with the iPad or smartphones. So instead of making an advanced app with the latest technologies, I tried to keep the app very simple, something that would be easy to use even for beginners. I implemented user-friendly guides, and I tried to craft the design carefully people could use it easily.

While the startup got supports from external entities and advisors, when its comes to product and business development, nearly everything has been conducted by Koike up until now. Tablet devices are expected to continue to be used in music. So he thinks there is still a lot of room for this product to grow.

The startup aims to reach 1 million downloads in the near future.

Digital music score platform PiaScore now has an iPhone version

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Japanese startup Plusadd has released an iPhone version of its popular digital music score platform PiaScore. The iPad version was released back in December of 2010, and has been downloaded over 100,000 times, counting professional musicians and educators among its fans. The digital music score platform aspires to bring music scores to the hands of people all over the world. Both the iPhone and iPad version of PiaScore are provided for free, with features that allows users to view music scores and make notes on them during practice. PiaScore’s ‘Realistic Display Mode’ makes these digital music scores appear as though they are on paper. Plusadd has also developed what they claim is the world’s fastest page rendering features. Classical music scores can be downloaded for free within the app, however, features such as recording, keyboard, and tone tuner costs 250 yen. Another key feature of the app is its Cloud Play which supports Dropbox. With Cloud Play, users can download over 57,000 scores by 7,800 composers directly from International Music Score Library. The CEO of Plus-Add, Hiroyuki Koike, is an ex-Sony engineer. He explained how he came up with the service: I was not a professional musician, but I used…

PiaScore-iphone-app

Japanese startup Plusadd has released an iPhone version of its popular digital music score platform PiaScore. The iPad version was released back in December of 2010, and has been downloaded over 100,000 times, counting professional musicians and educators among its fans.

The digital music score platform aspires to bring music scores to the hands of people all over the world. Both the iPhone and iPad version of PiaScore are provided for free, with features that allows users to view music scores and make notes on them during practice. PiaScore’s ‘Realistic Display Mode’ makes these digital music scores appear as though they are on paper. Plusadd has also developed what they claim is the world’s fastest page rendering features.

Classical music scores can be downloaded for free within the app, however, features such as recording, keyboard, and tone tuner costs 250 yen. Another key feature of the app is its Cloud Play which supports Dropbox. With Cloud Play, users can download over 57,000 scores by 7,800 composers directly from International Music Score Library.

The CEO of Plus-Add, Hiroyuki Koike, is an ex-Sony engineer. He explained how he came up with the service:

I was not a professional musician, but I used to play the piano as a child growing up. During club activities and concerts, I discovered many problems that musicians encounter. One major problem was that it was a lot of work to carrying around and manage music scores. I built PiaScore as a solution to this very problem.

In the near future, PiaScore plans to develop auto page turning features, and logging and managing of music scores. The company is also looking for possible collborative partners such as music education institutions to help realize this new type of communication through music.

PiaScore previously won the Distinguished Honoree award at the International Business Awards in 2011, and was chosen as a finalist at Japan’s prestigious IVS in spring of 2012. If you want to read our reports about IVS 2013, you can find them here.

The PiaScore app is availabe on iOS for download.