"nana" sings, collaborates and shar...

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"nana" sings, collaborates and shares on a smartphone. Reasons for popularity and behind the technology

Achieving "We Are The World" with just a smartphone

――Nana has the momentum to kill a flying bird, but what was the impetus for starting it in the first place? mosquito?

Mr. Fumihara

Fumihara: I have always loved singing, and my favorite singer is Stevie Wonder. His goal was to one day be able to sing like him. It's not like I was performing at live houses as a professional, but I thought it would be nice if I could become a jazz singer rather than a pop singer.

――I see, looking at the current nana, it's a system that can do just that. What happened after you thought of it that way?

Fumihara: I am neither an engineer nor a designer. So, I decided to gather people who could make it, so I sent it out on SNS such as Twitter. I'm from Kobe, but it's hard to find someone like that in Kobe, so during Golden Week in 2011, I asked my Twitter friends in Tokyo to stay with me. When I called on Twitter to look for a sento, an engineer replied, so I met him right away and talked with him. It was Tsujikawa, our CTO, who said that it was interesting to talk for 5 to 6 hours after getting excited.

Mr. Tsujikawa

Tsujikawa: At first I had no idea what he was saying, and after 5 minutes he said, "I understand, I understand." (laughs) I have been working as a freelance engineer for a long time, and in the past I made a music player for Mac, and I made a server-side system for a ringtone/ringtone mobile site. At that time, I was thinking that I would like to try a music service myself.

Collaborate and share by singing on your smartphone

-So the meeting between the two of you was the start of nana music.

Fumhara: That's right. However, Tsujikawa had no experience with iPhone apps and no designers, so he used SNS and other means to gather people. As a result, we were able to gather designers and iOS application development engineers, and we started with just four people. Well, in the beginning, everyone was out and about, and we were working on it while having other jobs. Furthermore, in November 2011, it was decided that we would receive funding from a fund headed by Taizo Son. .

――When nana presses the “Collaboration” button on a song that has been posted, you can record the harmonies, etc. I think this is the most important point, but I think that quite severe development is required, such as timing. Did it go smoothly?

Pressing the collaboration button allows you to record over the recording screen

Tsujikawa: Actually, that part was very difficult at first, and I almost ran into a dead end. However, a female engineer I met via Twitter made it easily, and it started working as a system.

Fumihara: In the early version, in order to make the singing more comfortable, we applied reverb to the singing voice and monitored it, but it was difficult to adjust the latency around here. In the end, I stopped using the function to return reverb to the monitor, but...

――And nana officially started its service in August 2012, right?

Fumihara: We launched the service with tremendous expectations, and at first it was picked up by the technical media and spread a little, but after that, it was downloaded about 10 to 20 times a day, and it didn't fly. The number of new posts was also at a standstill, as I could see all of them immediately. However, I also felt a passion from the users who joined early. There were people who were worried, saying, "This service is really good," or, "I really want you to keep using it, but what about monetization?" I could feel that it was clearly stuck in my mind, and I was convinced that our thoughts were correct.

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