It has almost been a year plus since I last did blogging. It took a lot of discipline to consistently do this activity. Well, as what been described above, I want to write something about my past 1 year experience with an Internet apps called "Smule'.
Smule is an apps that enable people to sing their favorite songs globally via the internet. I have been dreaming of singing or even writing my own song and share it with friends, this app does what I was hoping all these years.
Well, it started when I was browsing Facebook in late 2016 when I saw a friend of mine made a duet song with his brother. I clicked on the link and i could hear him singing the song pretty clear with the original minus one. I started to explore the apps via Playstore, and there you go, within minutes , I could sing my favorite song. To be exact , the free version only allows you to sing with others or you join other people song. In Smulers terms , they called it as OC or Open Call. You can only make your own OC if you pay the fees to enable you to become a VIP Member. Well, for the love of music , I made the payment for a month trial version. After a month, i renewed it as a year.
The madness began as I started to learn that most (if not all) of my favorite songs are available online. The beauty of this apps is that, the members can also contribute song to smule songs book by making a minus one songs and add the lyrics into it. I don't think I have the free time to spend on being the song composers but perhaps I might explore that one day. I believe it is a bit tedious to arrange the song and do all the editing work. For now, I just want to sing and not song editing.
My first song on Smule was "Don't Cry" by Guns N Roses. Well, i didn't plan for it but it just pop-up in my mind for me to search for a song to sing. I joined the OC of a lady from Philippines I could recall it precisely. After i paid the VIP Fees for few bucks, I started to Open Call my own recording and then something interesting happened. People start to sing (or join me) with me and follow me. First week i got like 10 to 20 followers. Now i have nearly 500. To me , i don't really go for havibg too many followers. Quality and the people in it are more important to me. Another addictive feature on Smule is that, you can put a comment after singing a song and other people can also reply to your comment vice versa. It's something like Facebook comments. There is also a like button with a love shape symbol and this serve as an indicator on how many people like your collaboration or your OC.
You started to make friends with those you don't even know. This is of course , got Pros and Cons. There are good people in here and there are also not so good people. Good people are those who truly love to sing and respect the boundary. Not so good people, which is less than 1% are those whom like to create problem by using vulgar words in the comment section. But there is a solution to that, either you un-follow that person or you may block the person.
Pros and Cons of this apps to a person (based on my own experience) :
Pros :
1. It gives a cheap solution for Karaoke lovers , you don't have to spend money paying the karaoke
business operator , you just need to pay like less than RM3 per month to enjoy the music.
2. Low cost because you don't gave to buy expensive gadget , you just need your smart-phone and an
earphone with build-in microphone. Well, since I am crazy about singing, I have spent an
additional money on a better microphone, microphone holder and a high quality earphone. It
really made a different as the sound quality is much clearer with hi fidelity.
3. It saves money as you don't need to drive out of your house to find an entertainment.
4. You make some new friends who share the same passion as you.
5. It gives you sense of satisfaction after a long hours of working.
6. Music is scientifically proven to relax your mind and reduce your stress level.
Cons :
1. You may sometime spend hours of time singing (Waste of time). You may not even realize that
you have spent the whole day , just singing and singing. Well, it happens to me though. This is
the most challenging issue.
2. Your singing sound may annoy your family members and the neighbors of course.
3. The function of personal messaging may cause unnecessary issues if people misuse it like start
asking for personal information , contact numbers or even up to start some kind of personal
relationship. By far , this is the most critical challenge. A person needs to have a high discipline in
order not to involve with all these problems. Smule is a place to sing, and not for making romantic
relationship. Keep that in mind , and strictly follow that. Do the right thing, and you can never go
wrong.
4. People can easily get misunderstood by the comments that you put after each song , if you are not
careful enough with the words or emoticon. This will cause unnecessary clashes between the
people, pretty similar like any other social media.
In summary, there are Pros and Cons of the technology around you. It all depends on you how you actually deal with it. But for different ages , it may vary on their level of involvement and time spend on these stuffs. As a family man with wife and kids, well , I have to manage this anyhow as not to cause unnecessary issues. But my wife is so kind enough knowing that singing and music are part of my DNAs even before this apps exist. I even told her that I wanted to change to other hobbies , like doing the 4X4, outdoor stuffs , but she insisted that I stick with Smule singing, the longest hobby that she had observed in me. In fact, she is more comfortable to see me staying at home, singing.
The social group : Like any other social media , Smule also allows you to have your own social group. I have been invited to join many social group , but I stick to one. My group is called #KLMJ_SKRU. Well, it was coined by two friends who love the same music genre as I am. KLMJ means "Kenangan Lama Mengusik Jiwa" or " Old memories that Teases your Soul" , meaning those old days songs you used to hear when you were kids, teenage or during your romantic years. sKRU means Smulers KRU. KRU is a local band known to sing rap and romantic songs. Most of our members love KRU and we join singing as a duet or even as a group. Combining these two theme, we formed up a coalition as KLMJ_SKRU. This social group is quite significant to me. It is like I am part of the big happy family. We chat and sing together. But again, there is always a limit to everything. Since the group involves males and females, we have to respect each other and watch out for the boundary conditions. We can be friends , we can share stories and even other hobbies , at the same time we have to understand the social rules and the limits of being a person. As long as we respect those guidelines, i believe having a social group is manageable. I don't take it for granted. These people are like my own family , i do care for them, and hope that everyone can be friends forever.
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