Software developer gets Apple seal of approval

APPLE has endorsed a music app created by a Henley man.

The company selected the acoustic version of SessionBand as one of 20 "new and noteworthy" apps in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and it now appears on its app store homepage in those countries.

Paul Sissons, of Meadow Road, created the original SessionBand app in December last year. It was the first piece of smartphone software to use a chord-based loop. Mr Sissons has now added three spin-off versions dedicated to acoustic guitar, jazz and piano.

The jazz app has also drawn praise from jazz musician Jamie Cullum, who played at this year?s Henley Festival.

Cullum wrote on Twitter: "This is an extraordinarily useful tool for jazz musicians of any ability, from the very beginner to the gigging professional."

SessionBand reached number seven in the UK music app charts and all four of the apps by UK Music Apps have appeared in the top 20 in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Japan and South Korea.

Mr Sissons, a musician and songwriter, said: "It?s a real cross-section. The jazz app in particular has gone down brilliantly everywhere.

"Although it?s jazz, there?s a huge market worldwide. We sell quite a few in the UK but about 80 per cent of the downloads are overseas.

"The USA is the big market so to be in the top 10 of the music app charts there is a pretty big deal.

"Being on the ?new and noteworthy? list is major. It has a huge impact on sales because, essentially, Apple is recommending the app."

The loops have been recorded by professional musicians who have worked with top recording artists including Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney and Elton John.

Mr Sissons, who is married to Cassie, a director of a graduate recruitment company, and has three children, said the apps can be used by professional and amateur musicians.

He said: "If you are already a musician they are great to write songs with or to practise your instruments with.

"A saxophonist can create a track in a few minutes and play along with it ? the track you are playing with is by some of the best jazz musicians who have pre-recorded the loops.

"Equally, if you are just messing about with music and don?t play an instrument it?s a way of being able to create a backing track without actually playing anything."

The original app has been downloaded about 30,000 times and there are currently about 1,000 downloads a day of all four of the apps.