The ways to solve problems and resolve issues are different for everyone; some people leave it alone and wait for problems to pass, while others work them out on their own. Luke Li, worked out personal problem by creating his own music empire, HypedMusic.
Carlmont senior and ASB President Luke Li said, “I’ve been using music sites lately. I like my music. I listen to a lot of rap. [For example, I listen to] my boy Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West,and Big Sean.”
Growing up, Li loved listening to this music but he wanted to find a way for people to make playlists and listen to that type of music for free, while keeping it legal.
“I didn’t really see any sites that did that. Spotify and stuff can’t listen to that music on your iPhone for free so I decided to make it myself,” said Li.
Li took this idea and ran with it as he decided to create the website hypedmusic.com during the summer of his sophomore year. On the website, visitors can use their Facebook account to log into the site. Once there, they can create playlists full of their favorite songs. To add music, users can search for and look through a plethora of songs to add to playlists with the click of a button.
“I think HypedMusic is a great website. I can find any type of music on there. It’s awesome,” said senior Shawn Geronimo.
During the summer going into his senior year, Li decided to expand. He created his own Android app version of the music site. Using a Facebook login, users could now have their playlists and songs that they created on the web site synced to the application. The music could be played while on wifi or data connection. This Android app also has an offline music playing feature which allows users to download the music to the app and listen to it without being connected to the internet.
“I love how easy it is to find music on that app. You gotta stay hyped all the time with that music,” said Geronimo.
Li then decided to release his first app, HypedMusic, to the prestigious Apple App Store. Initially, the HypedMusic iPhone app was released on the app store by designer George Mason under the direction of Li. Over the 2012-2013 winter break, Li took matters into his own hands and created the application by himself, and re-releasing a new version on Jan. 20, 2013.
The re-released application showed noticeable improvements, including faster speed, smoother interface and a generally better looking product.
The application also caught the attention of many people around the world, reaching the number one spot in music applications in Croatia, France and Italy. It also placed seventh overall in Argentina’s application line up according to www.appannie.com, along with 11 top ten music application finishes around the world.
“It’s cool because it’s free and it doesn’t use that much data… Instead of putting music on my phone, I have hyped music,” said junior Jack Tilly.
Illegal music downloading has become a problem in America. According to www.prefixmag.com, America had 96,681,133 illegal downloads in the first six months of 2012. Li has found a creative way for him to work around the complication.
“I don’t own any of the music files myself and that’s the biggest thing. I’ll go look on tumblr, and soundcloud and try to find these links to and i’ll play the music directly from those sites on my interface,”said Li.
“There’s a law called the DMCA. We just informally asked a lawyer to see if it was legal. The law is pretty clear so we are in pretty good standings,” Li said.
Hyped Music has only the sky as the limit because Li has many ideas that he says he will be implementing in the near future, like offline streaming and iPhone features such as album browsing and radio.
