Ever since Instagram made it remarkably easy for everyday users to develop a photographer’s eye and create beautiful images with just their phones, mobile social imagery has been taken to a new level in user adoption. Recognizing this, DreamWorks Animation has assembled a small team to create an app called Ptch that lets people create music video animations of their photos, but in a new shareable way – by allowing users to open up their content so that others can use the imagery to create remixes and mash ups of their own.
Once placed in the desired order, users can add captions and select from different “themes” (what filters are to Instagram) in order to enhance the production value of their videos. Users then can select from a range of licensed music to add. From there, the app simply pieces together photos and video clips into one music video that can be emailed, shared externally to Facebook or Twitter, or internally within the app itself. Users can also toggle between keeping their videos private and letting the public access it to view and/or create mash ups of their own from individual content assets.
Click images to enlarge:
With the success of companies like Instagram and Draw Something, more and more app developers are following suit of the three common denominators that made those companies so successful – mobile, social, and creative. People are beginning to enjoy easily expressing themselves in creative ways and enjoy doing so from wherever and whenever they like, all while ensuring that their friends know about it. The 20-person team at Ptch, led by former chief technology officer of DreamWorks Ed Leonard, is clearly aware of this and consists of DreamWorks employees and people recruited from companies like Yahoo and MySpace.
Ptch is currently available for free in the United States and Canada and only available for iPhone and iPad users (at least for now). There is presently no premium tier, as the company seeks to build a user base.
Monetization is said to later come in the form of paid “styles" and songs that people can buy to customize their videos. The company also hopes to one day build a marketplace where developers can build and sell their own “styles”, with Ptch taking a cut of the revenue similar to how Apple shares revenue with outside developers.
Check out Ptch in the App Store or at www.ptch.com.
—
Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House, LLC and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud
