After the funding is complete, the Hum team will spend the following 2 months finish developing the app. Once the design is complete, beta testers will get download codes when it is about three-fourths done. Hum will be giving updates and will blog the whole process.
The Hum team has an extensive technical background. Shekey designs websites for a small agency called Sevnthsin and he designed Edge Reflow while working at Adobe. Kuefler leads a creative team at Zeus Jones where he runs campaigns for Google, Nordstrom, and Cheerios. And Walton was a strategic advisor to Adobe's CTO and prototyped a digital magazine platform that is used by WIRED and The New Yorker on the iPad.
Hum said that musicians that they have talked to have a similar songwriting process. They play on the guitar, piano, or another instrument and then open their iPhone to record it on a Voice Memo. Unfortunately, you cannot really sort Voice Memos. Lyrics are usually placed in the iPhone Notes app and they are often placed in between shopping lists and to-do lists.
Hum works as an audio recorder and a note-taking app. You can organize items by song. Once you record something, you will be prompted to give the song its key, tuning, and mood. You can assign a root note to the recording along with the tuning and mood-based metadata. The app also has a built-in metronome and tuner. Lyrics can be added while looping recordings if you want to hear the chord progression over-and-over.
Backers of Hum on Kickstarter will be rewarded as follows:
$1 or more - You and all of the other backers will be credited on their website
$6 or more - Just the app at an introductory cost. You will receive a promo code to download the app when it launches
$10 or more - A copy of the app at its regular price and a bag of swag with Hum picks and stickers. Hum will also create a musical thank you to you and those supporters. If you send your favorite demo to Hum, they will include it somehow.
$30 or more - There are two options. Option #1 includes the app, the bag of swag, and a Hum t-shirt. You will also be invited to the a stream of the Hum team performing a thank you performance. Option #2 includes the app, the bag of swag, the thank you performance stream invitation, and a poster.
$50 or more - You will get the app, 3 posters, a shirt, and the swag bag.
$70 or more - You will be able to beta test the app before it arrives on the App Store. You can offer feedback 1-on-1 in a personal Skype chat during the testing window. You will also get everything else that the $30 or more backers receive. This pledge is limited to 70 people total.
$150 or more - The app, the three posters, a framed archival print of a photo, the swag bag, and an invitation to Aaron's place in Minneapolis for a celebration.
$500 or more - Everything mentioned above and Hum will send you a few songs in a pre-populated sample library. You song's lyrics will appear in the sample library. You will also get a thank you credit in the app.
$1,000 or more - Everything mentioned above and the Hum team said that they will "do something stupid as a sign of our gratitude. You won't regret it, but we might."
$2,000 or more - Everything mentioned above. The Hum design crew will also design you a custom screen printed poster that you can use for a show or general purpose merchandise. They will cover the printing costs. You will also be invited to a pre-launch dinner the night before the launch party.
$7,000 or more - Everything mentioned above, plus their photographer Leslie will travel to photograph your band. They will use the shots of your band in some form of upcoming marketing material.
