Remember when the video game “Guitar Hero” came out? It was fantastic because it let anyone become an epic rock God, regardless of ability to actually play an instrument, ability to wear leather pants, or ability to consume large piles of cocaine in a single sitting. With just a few button clicks, you could be unleashing a face-melting guitar solo alongside Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page. It was easy enough for kids and legitimately enjoyable for adults.
Air Jamz, by Zivix (creators of the Jamstick, a wifi enabled smart guitar) just raised over $34,000 on Kickstarter in an effort to make it even easier to live out your rock God fantasies – all you need is a few tiny devices and a guitar made of air. The premise is simple: clip a small device to a wearable bracelet or an oversized guitar pick.
The device, which is equipped with motion sensors, then connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app. The app contains numerous songs, musical notes, and even sound effects. By moving the wrist in a guitar-playing fashion (or really, any fashion), users can play along with songs, unleash wicked guitar solos, trigger sound effects, and even conduct an orchestra.
A user can play a solo act or can join up to 4 buddies to create an air guitar band. The music can be pumped through headphones, a device speaker, or the “Mini Jamz” speaker, which is also made by Zivix.
The musical notes, songs, and sound effects are all produced in-house by Zivix, meaning they don’t have to deal with issues of licensing rights; by producing all their tracks in-house, Zivix can constantly create new tracks for users to purchase.
At a minimum, this is a great little toy that will let kids pretend to be rockstars. But then the kids will badger their parents for more songs, the parents will shell out the cash, and Zivix will commence rolling in giant piles of money, becoming the real rock stars. Other potential users for AirJamz include:
- Drunk people (the ones who always sing along to “Don’t Stop Believing” when it plays at a bar)
- People who like karaoke in a non-ironic way
- The US Air Guitar Finalists (yes, Air Jamz really is the official air guitar of the US Air Guitar Finals…whatever that means)
According to their Kickstarter page, the Air Jamz will retail at around $60 dollars. Units can be pre-ordered now on their website and plan to ship in August.
Stephen Altrogge is a freelance writer based in Tallahassee, Florida. He writes about tech, marketing, faith, and lots of other things. He’s married to Jen and has three young girls. Every day he consumes more coffee than the entire population of Colombia. He knows more about Star Wars than any respectable man should, and he runs more than any sane man would. He once attempted to eat a 2 pound hamburger in under an hour. He failed.
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“Drunks….” exactly.
This might be some sort of hit at the bar. Get a couple of these and watch your patrons really jam around like they know what they are doing. Could bring in an entirely new karaoke crowd.
$60 first. Then more $$ for songs? Great toy for kids or not, I would not be spending that on my children. However, it would make them get off the couch and move.
Seems like a real fun toy, but that is really just the end of it right? These products that are made usually end up on a shelf with the inventor going nowhere after. Why?