Oakland Hella Music Hack Day Names 3 Finalists

Often overshadowed by San Francisco and Silicon Valley,
Oakland and its surrounding area remains home to Pandora, MOG and
Gracenote. Over the weekend, 70 hackers from all over California to joined together for us for the city's first ever music hackathon

The 70 participants were split into 20 groups with
20 hacks at the final pitch. Of the 20 hacks, the panel of judges chose
two favorites while the audience voted online for the “viewer’s choice.”
A third of the hackers stayed overnight and feverishly wrapped up their hacks
for 2:30pm presentations to a panel of judges.

All three hacks will head to SF Music Tech tomorrow, October
1 to pitch to another panel of judges. The winner will be crowned the
king of Hella Hack Oakland and receive the $1,000 cash prize.

From left to right: Oscar Celma, Ching-Wei Chen, Seth Piezas, Shashi Jain, Alexandre Passant

Judges’ Pick: Guilty Pleasure

Hacker: Shashi Jain

Concept: We all have a guilty pleasure
playlist. Whether it’s N*SYNC or Miley Cyrus, we all have a few songs and
artists that we only listen to alone. Guilty Pleasure is an iOS app that
lets you listen to your guilty pleasure songs (like Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga,
Carly Rae Jepsen), but makes it look like you are listening to a cool indie
track on the lock screen. If someone wants to check, you can quickly switch the
song to the less embarrassing song.

Judges’ Pick: Video Machine

Hacker: Seth Piezas

Modern mobile devices have more computing power
than the computers used to create Jurassic Park. Video Machine turns your
mobile device into a full-featured music video production platform, with
real-time filters and other effects.

Viewer’s Choice: Hella Bar

Hackers: Oscar Celma and Alexandre Passant

Concept: Whether on business travel or looking
to find a new bar in your ‘hood, Hella Bar recommends bars, restaurants and
cafes that fit your musical taste. By signing in with Facebook, it learns your
musical tastes based on artists you like and then recommends locations from
Yelp that match your style.

Final judges include: