Skip to main content

Startup Battlefield

TechCrunch’s Premier Startup Competition

Company

UJAM

UJAM offers cloud-based software that enables anyone to record and produce music and share it with their others.

Germany, Europe Disrupt NYC 2010

Watch The Pitch

Details

Founded Date

2010

Industries
Music Social Networking and Collaboration Software
Operating Status

Open

Website

www.ujam.com

Founders

Axel Hensen Founder

News About UJAM

TC

UJAM Gets A UI Overhaul As It Looks To Become The GarageBand of the Web

Jason Kincaid

It's been some time since we heard from UJAM, the music startup that launched (and was runner-up) at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2010. The service launched in a private alpha last May, and quietly opened its doors to the public in December. And since then, nada. But now they're back. The reason for the quiet, says UJAM cofounder Peter Gorges, is that the company has been heads-down for the last six months, overhauling, tweaking, and polishing the UI to make it more accessible. Gorges explains that when it first launched, UJAM was really a lot of nifty features with a functional, but not especially easy-to-use, UI. Part of that, he says, was because UJAM's founders have been working with music professionals for so long that they may have expected too much of their users. This revamp should help change that.

Ujam Is Now Ready To Turn You Into A Rockstar

Erick Schonfeld

During our first TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York last May, the startup that nearly stole the show and was the obvious audience favorite was Ujam, a sophisticated Web-based music creation site which lets even tone-deaf people like me compose songs. During their demo at Disrupt, angel investor Chris Sacca, who was one of the judges, took it upon himself to test the application onstage and belted out a tune (see video below). Now you can try it too. Ujam quietly came out of private alpha last week, and is allowing a set number of new users in every day. All you do is hum, whistle, or sing, and Ujam can turn your voice into nearly any instrument and fix it so that it is in tune. You can also upload your own pre-recorded tracks or pick pre-existing tracks on Ujam from different styles of music (Kraftwerk, 80s Rock, Campfire Guitar). The Ujam music editor lets you change the instruments, tempo, pitch, and mix between vocals and music to create your own composition. Once you are done, you can save your songs and download them as MP3s for sharing.

TC

Why UJAM Didn't Win TechCrunch Disrupt

Michael Arrington

Something that I loved about TechCrunch Disrupt last week is that the top two startups that launched in the competition weren't from the U.S. - winner Soluto is based in Israel, and runner up UJAM is a German startup. In our previous events we had lots of non-U.S. startups, too, but the winners have always been U.S. based teams. So to have startups from Israel and Germany win was a real treat for me personally. The judges selected Soluto, which is software to make your computer run better, as the clear winner. The company has a proven team, lots of funding and has been working on the product for two years, they say. We take audience voting into account as well, and we will also put in our vote. But at the end of the tallying there just wasn't much of a discussion. You can never tell how a startup will do until it actually launches (see, for example, Cuil, which had massive funding and a killer team but flopped on launch), but everything we saw suggests that Soluto is likely to go on to do amazing things. And they have a terrific business model. They deserved to win the Disrupt Cup.

Startups

Startup Battlefield Round 3: The Final Disruption

Jason Kincaid

We're down to the final five companies at the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield: Betterment, Movieclips, Publish2, Soluto, and UJAM. This afternoon these companies are all making their last appeals to a panel of expert judges, explaining how they disrupt their respective markets. My live notes from the session are below. The judges: John Borthwick Ron Conway Marissa Mayer Sam Schwartz Quincy Smith

TC

The TechCrunch Disrupt Final Five: Betterment, MOVIECLIPS, Publish2, Soluto And UJAM

Michael Arrington

Eighty thousand people have tuned in to TechCrunch Disrupt to watch the launch of twenty new startups and products in the Startup Battlefield - nearly 2,000 in live attendance and another staggering 78,000 on the live video stream. Of those twenty just ten made it to the second round, where the focus was on the business model. After long deliberations, and after calculating the total score of each startup based on our panel of expert judges and voting from the audience and viewers, we now have the final five TechCrunch Disrupt startups. The winner takes home an experience of a lifetime, $50,000 in cash and the Disrupt Cup.

Startups

Survival Of The Fittest: The Startups That Made The Second Round At #TCDisrupt

Robin Wauters

We were fortunate enough to witness a lot of fascinating startups strut their stuff here at TechCrunch Disrupt, not just on the main stage but also in the Startup Alley and beyond. But of course the event is and remains a competition, so the experts have been working hard to select those startups with the most potential to be genuinely disruptive, and vote them into the second round of the pitching contest. Just ten of the original twenty startups have been invited back to round two. The final few startups will be announced tomorrow, and they'll be back on stage for the final round of demo and rapid-fire Q&A with our experts. Here they are:

Startups

TC Disrupt: Battlefield Session One Video And Winners

Devin Coldewey

The judges have returned from their deliberations, and the winner is... three of the following five companies, all of which gave excellent demos and answered questions with poise and confidence. The entire session is in one monster video for now, along with deliberation and second round business plan discussion, so I'm providing times in case you want to skip directly to one presentation or another. If you just want to see Sacca crooning, go here.

TC

Sacca Comes Alive! An Angel Investor Becomes Frank Sinatra With UJAM [Video]

MG Siegler

Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City the Startup Battlefield got off to a quick start. Ujam, a service which lets you take any melody in your head and turn it into an actual piece of music with a few mouse clicks wowed the crowd. But they used a professional singer for their demo. So what better way to prove the product than to get one of the Battlefield judges to sing? That's exactly what Chris Sacca did. Sacca sang "It Had To Be You" with no musical backing. A few clicks later, Ujam added a few layers for an amazing result. You'll definitely want to see this video (taken by Robert Scoble) below:

TC

UJAM Turns Whistling, Humming, And Even Tone-Deaf Singing Into Musical Masterpieces

Jason Kincaid

We all have them: those brief, spontaneous little melodies that pop into the back of our heads, undoubtedly destined for greatness if only we had an ounce of musical talent or a five piece band at our disposal. Well, now you wannabe-maestros have your chance. UJAM is a new startup making its debut today at TechCrunch Disrupt that can turn your humming, whistling, kazoo-playing or not-so-in-tune vocals into something people might actually want to listen to. And it's really, really cool. There's plenty of advanced technology working in the background, but to the user, the site really seems like magic. Whistle a few notes of 'Ode to Joy', and in seconds you'll hear your tune played back by a grand piano. Or an electric guitar. Or a full orchestra, complete with sweeping crescendos that somehow fit your tune perfectly. You can swap between these options in a few clicks, tweaking the results until they suit your fancy. If you happen to sing a few notes out of key, UJam will fix them for you. And if you play an instrument (or at least, try to), you can also use this to quickly turn your one-man show into a full band.

Startups

The List Of Startups Launching At TechCrunch Disrupt

Leena Rao

We are only a few hours away from kicking off the first ever TechCrunch Disrupt conference and we are thrilled to announce the 20 startups that were chosen out of hundreds to present their applications over the next few days. We will also hear pitches from the two StartupAlley companies that receive the most votes over the next two days. These startups will battle it out over three intense days, with one of these startups eventually taking home $50,000.