Google recently released a music api, Chrome Music Lab. As Google puts it, “Music is for everyone”. Chrome music lab allows users to create, analyze and visualize music without the need of third party plug-ins. It utilizes the browser and the technology available within the browser. One such technology is the Web Audio API developed by W3C. It processes and synthesizes audio in web application. There is also WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication), which supports real time video chats and P2P file sharing. Other technologies includes WebGL for visual effects, Tone.js for creating interactive music in the browser and Pixi.js for creating 2D animations. Google’s aim is to allow anyone to experiment and explore how music works through the use of these technologies.
Chrome Music Lab can create powerful music applications within the browser. It was released less than a month ago for the annual Music In Our Schools month. It therefore will influence how our social music site is going to be developed mainly because of the power of the framework. JAMZ requires much of the features that are provided by Google’s API and also presents possibilities for creating new interactive features that can be utilized within the social network. One of our aim of the social network is to make music more accessible and easy to interact with for both the professional and casual users. Chrome Music Lab certainly enables that. The API will also make life easier for our developers and coders because they can build upon the framework instead of developing new ones. To demonstrate some of the capabilities of Chrome Music Lab, I have included Google’s promo video. It is really exciting, so enjoy!
