Yousician
 | The topic of this articlemay not meet Wikipedia'snotability guidelines for companies and organizations.(January 2022) |
 | |
| Industry | Music education |
|---|---|
| Founded | December 2010 |
| Founder | Chris Thür & Mikko Kaipainen |
| Headquarters | Helsinki , |
Key people |
|
| Products | Yousician for Guitar, Piano, Ukulele, Bass, Voice Yousician for Educators GuitarTuna |
Number of employees | 126 |
| Website | yousician |
Yousicianis a Finnish interactive andeducational music servicemade to learn and play amusical instrument.It currently supports the followingmusical instruments:guitar, piano (keyboards),ukulele,bass, and voice.
History
[edit]Yousician Ltd. is aHelsinkibased music education company founded by Chris Thür and Mikko Kaipainen in 2010 under the name Ovelin,[1]as part of theStartup Saunaaccelerator programme atAalto University.[2]The company develops and operates amusic servicecalled Yousician, and a tuner application called GuitarTuna.
In May 2020, Yousician launched its educational learning platform Guest Teacher Series, which provides music students with digital Q&A sessions with professional musicians.
In 2021, Yousician raised $28 million (€23.1 million[3]) in funding. In total, Yousician had at the end of 2021 series B investment round collected in total a funding of €35 million.[3]The company's largest investor is a Silicon Valley–based firm True Ventures. New investors at this funding round included Amazon's Alexa Fund and MPL Ventures LLP. Several angel investors have also invested in Yousician.[4]
Yousician
[edit]Yousician is currently available for five instruments: guitar, piano, bass, ukulele, and voice. For each instrument, Yousician features a lesson plan developed and produced in-house by the company’s music educators. The lesson plans are designed like music courses and consist of lessons, exercises, tutorial videos and minigames.
Yousician'saudio signal processingtechnology guides users as they learn to play real musical instruments. Users follow sheet music or tablature notation on their device's screen and play along to a backing track. Using the device's built-in microphone, Yousician gives feedback on accuracy and timing.
Yousician operates under a freemium model where one lesson per day is given for free, while unlimited lesson time is offered via paid subscriptions.
Reception
[edit]Yousician was released in November 2014, to mostly positive reviews.Guitar Worldcalled it "modern technology's gift to music education" and in March 2015 it was featured as 'Editor's Choice' in theAppleiOS App Store.[5]Critical voices usually do not question the product itself, but contrast it to the option of learning to play an instrument in privatelessons.Voicesinc.org for example stated that "If you’re happy to learn from a digital screen, then it’s great, but if you want a lot more human interaction and demonstration, there may be some better options." However, Yousician's CEO Chris Thür has said that using their app does not exclude in-person teaching, but may be used to supplement it.[6]
Yousician was one ofWired'stop 100 Europeanstartupsin 2012,[7]and were also featured inThe Sunday Times"World's Best Apps List 2012".
In June 2018, Yousician began what the company has called a "sunset of the song upload feature", which was completed with the October 2018 update 2.58 that removed alluser-generated contentfrom the app.[8]The removal of user generated content sparked opposition among some vocal users online. Coincidence with introduction of what Yousician callspopular songs,licensed songs by well-known bands and artists, that was announced with the update 2.55 on 23 August 2018,[9]led to speculation about the motives of the decision, however Yousician as a company has not elaborated on the reasons of their business move.
In 2020, theInternational Academy of Digital Arts and Sciencesgranted Yousician a gold at Lovie Awards in Apps, Mobile & Voice: Education & Reference category.[10][11]The same year, Yousician was nominated as the Digital Service of the Year by Software & E-Business of Finland.[12][13]
Legal controversy with Ubisoft
[edit]The creators of Yousician had been sued byUbisoftover claimed patent infringement on their patent U.S. Patent 9,839,852, for an "Interactive guitar game", which Ubisoft had used in theirmusic video gameRocksmith.[14]In August 2019, a federal district court ruled that the patent claims of Ubisoft were too broad and not defined in enough specificity, thus nullifying the patent and dismissing Ubisoft's suit.[15]
References
[edit]- ^Lappalainen, Elina."Tamperelaiselle Ovelinille miljoonasijoitus Piilaaksosta".Talouselämä.Retrieved19 July2013.
- ^Armstrong, Stephen."Europe's hottest startups 2015: Helsinki".Wired.co.uk.Retrieved30 July2015.
- ^abTucker, Charlotte (30 April 2021)."Helsinki-based Yousician lands €23.1 million to reimagine music education".Eu-startups.com.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^"Yousician, The World's Leading Platform for Learning and Playing Music, Announces Closing of $28 Million Series B Round".Prnewswire.com.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^Priario, Guitar World."Yousician Is a Fast, Fun Way to Learn to Play Guitar".Guitar World.Retrieved23 February2017.
- ^"Yousician raises $28M to make music education more accessible".Social.techcrunch.com.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^Cheshire, Tom."Europe's 100 hottest startups 2012: Helsinki".Wired.co.uk.Retrieved19 July2013.
- ^"Why is music uploading function disappeared?".Yousician.com.Retrieved2020-06-15.
- ^"Yousician update – version 2.55".Yousician.com.Retrieved2020-06-15.
- ^"Yousician Wins Gold at the Lovie Awards!".Yousician.com.21 November 2020.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^"The Lovie Awards Winners Gallery".Winnersgallery.lovieawards.com.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^"Yousician Named Digital Service of the Year!".Yousician.com.7 December 2020.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^"Yousician on Vuoden Digipalvelu 2020:" Digitalisaatio voi tehdä jokaisesta muusikon "– Maailmassa jo kymmeniä miljoonia käyttäjiä".Ohjelmistoebusiness.fi.Retrieved7 February2022.
- ^US patent 9,839,852
- ^Sinclair, Brendan (August 13, 2019)."Ubisoft loses Rocksmith patent suit".GamesIndustry.biz.RetrievedAugust 13,2019.