Let Me Aitokaiku My Life

I always wanted to have an app that would play music according to mood/environment. Aitokaiku does exactly that or at least it will when it’s released.

I met this amazing app during Slush event, which just ended last week. Aito means Authentic or real in Finnish, Kaiku means Echo hence the name. Aitokaiku music-making technology was created in 2008 by DJ/producer and technologist Jarno Eerola as a way to transform the natural world into music. Technology itself has been in development for 7 years now and finally has been deemed worthy of public use.

I had an opportunity to test the app before official beta release at slush and it is truly something unique, not only in terms of functionality, but design as well.

Application Controls


Aitokaiku controls to change music theme and more

Controls are simple, yet odd. A big circle appears in the middle of the screen with small circles overlaid on the edge of bigger one. Each overlay circle represents a music theme. When you select any theme, the app then starts using all sensors that phone has like accelerometer, GPS, even camera to generate music in real time. It reacts to what you are doing, saying, and changes music accordingly. Aitokaiku translates the world around you into music, letting you feel your surroundings in a way long-imagined, but never possible – until now.

Social aspect is in the package as well. Follow other people, use their music profiles, and make a few friends in the process. Generated music can be shared and is not under any license so you can freely distribute it, use it in your videos, game streams, everywhere.

Privacy and Battery Concerns

It all sounds great and I, personally, cannot wait to try it. However, as any geeky person I got a bit worried about battery life. With all sensors it will be using to generate music wouldn’t it affect the battery life? The answer is not so much. As one would imagine, using all the sensors will drain some of that precious battery juice, but it will do so in a smart way. For instance, app will not be using camera when the phone lies down on the table. Essentially, it will try to smartly detect which sensors makes sense to use at the very moment.

What about privacy? Don’t worry privacy protectors – engine that generates music is located within the app and not on the server thus no internet connection is required to generate music and any data collected from sensors is only used locally on your device, meaning your selfies and text messages are intact.

Aitokaiku will officially be released in early-2016 for Android and iOS with closed beta before the launch.