Legacy Games, a leading mobile game developer, has partnered with Crayola to launch Crayola® DJ, an innovative music creation app for children ages 6-10. Kids everywhere can now learn the basics of music production and enjoy the experience of mixing and scratching music like a real DJ.
Crayola® DJ lets children have a blast playing with almost 100 exclusive tracks, created by professional DJs and available in five musical styles, including Hip Hop, Pop and Dance. Kids can easily mix multiple tracks simultaneously in any way they choose, generating customized, professional-sounding results unique to each child. The app is designed to always result in a pleasing mix and a positive experience, regardless of the child’s level of musical knowledge and skills.
“I wanted to design an app that gave kids creative control, while also producing great sound,” said Crayola® DJ’s producer, Jamar Graham.
“Other music mixing and creation apps are either made for professionals and are too complex and frustrating for kids or so simplistic that they appeal only to the youngest children,” he continued. “At the same time, if you strip out the more sophisticated features, an app runs the risk of becoming uninteresting. We aimed for a middle ground that would be easy, engaging and fun.”
Crayola DJ includes powerful and easy to use tools for children to experiment with and create music like a superstar DJ. Tools like touch sensitive dual turntables, a SFX pad, a crossfader, and a tempo slider allow kids to speed up and slow down the music to alter the pitch, add crazy sound effects to energize the crowd, and effortlessly scratch & mix like a professional.
Once they’ve mixed the music to perfection, they can “perform” on the main stage for an audience, scratching the turntable and creating a spectacular light show with the color coded tracks. They can even earn points during the show: The more scratching and on the fly changes children make, the greater the applause of the crowd and the higher the point score. DJs can also battle it out in two-player mode to see who the star of the main stage is. After every performance, DJs can then save their music to play again and again and even share with friends and family. With Crayola® DJ, kids become their own celebrity DJs!
“We are excited to continue our partnership with Legacy Games and launch Crayola® DJ, a new app for kids that celebrates color, music and creativity, “ said Warren Schorr, Vice President of Business Development and Global Licensing for Crayola. “Crayola® DJ provides an innovative online experience where kids can actually spin the turntables, mix music, create the lighting and share their output.”
Crayola® DJ is the second of three Crayola apps being developed by Legacy. The first app, Crayola® Color, Draw & Sing, has been downloaded 500,000 times. It combines the process of coloring and drawing with music, so that adding to the picture actually completes the song. Crayola® Color, Draw & Sing is geared to children ages 2-6.
Especially exciting is that Crayola DJ will be available in Google Play’s new family discovery experience, announced today during the keynote presentation at the Google I/O Conference in San Francisco. The new Google Play format enables parents to easily find great family-friendly content, including Crayola DJ.
“At Legacy Games, we are committed to developing games that engage children in the creative process,” said Ariella Lehrer, CEO, who has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology. “As children’s use of digital devices skyrockets, our goal is to provide them with activities that spur the creative process, help their development and engage them in a fun and age-appropriate way.”
The new Crayola® DJ app is available now for $4.99 on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. In June, it will also be sold in the iTunes Store for iOS devices, for the same price. Legacy Games initially developed the Crayola® DJ app for the HP Sprout, which can be downloaded from the HP Sprout Marketplace.