A Strong Crop Of Music Hack Day Sydney Winners
Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.
Yes, it’s true: I flew about 25 hours each way from New York to attend Music Hack Day Sydney last weekend, and have written up just about every app and hack to emerge from it over the course of the week. These Aussies and the occasional New Zealander or Englishman produced some really great hacks, and I say that as someone who has attended my fair share of these events.
For the uninitiated, the Music Hack Day series of events brings together software ninjas and hardware tweakers to build the future of music over the course of a single weekend. Well, sort of: They have about 24 hours to team up, come up with an idea, and build their concept into a functional prototype in time to present their creation to the group.
This can be a horrifying experience for anyone who doesn’t know how to code, because it makes you realize that these people have the power to make actual things, while the rest of us can merely discuss, buy, and use them.
I have yet to see the winners from this past weekend’s Music Hack Day Sydney announced anywhere, other than in the official video (below). And so without further ado, here are all the winners, along with links to our coverage so you can find out more about what each one did to win:
- BEST HACK OVERALL ($2,000 cash): 1st prize: Ivy. 2nd prize (trophy): draw between 8Bit Serato VJ and Instasound
- PEOPLE’S CHOICE: ($500 in Amazon Web Services + Kindle Fire): 8Bit Serato VJ
- BIGGEST MARKET POTENTIAL ($1,000 AWS credits + Kindle Fire): 1st prize: Ivy. 2nd prize (trophy): Instasound
- BEST DESIGN: (Sonos PLAY 3, Sonos Bridge, 12-month subscription to Rdio or Spotify, Amazon retail credit $150): 1st prize: Ivy. 2nd prize (trophy): De:coded
- BEST MOBILE HACK (1 Kindle Reader + 1 ticket to One More Thing conference): 1st prize: Instasound. 2nd prize: draw between rage++ and jlist
- BEST HARDWARE HACK (Kindle Fire + Little Bird Electronics $50 voucher): 8Bit Serato VJ
- HALL OF FAME to be awarded to one hacker somewhere in the world for their long-term commitment to music hacking: Paul Lamere
- Every category winner also receives a Spencertive trophy and Otis eyewear.
API PRIZES
- BEST SONOS HACK (Sonos PLAY:3, Sonos Bridge, one-year music subscription): SoCo
- BEST ROVI HACK 1st prize ($200 visa gift card): Soundtrack of You. 2nd prize ($150 Visa gift card): Soundtastic
- BEST RDIO HACK: 1st prize One year subscription to Rdio Unlimited: Ivy
- BEST 7DIGITAL HACK ($300 of music from 7digital and Sennheiser Bluetooth Headphones PXC310BT): Wish You Were Here
- BEST SERATO HACK: freeScreeeaaam!!!!!!
- BEST OPENTOK BY TOKBOX HACK (Beats by Dre Studio Overear Headphones): tokStar
- BEST TRIPLE J HACK (Triple J prize pack + Otis Eyewear): jlist
If you’re still curious about what went on there after reading our exhaustive (and occasionally exhausted, given the time difference) coverage, you can watch all of the presentations and the award ceremony here:
