Lady Gaga spearheads Smule's freemium switch for Magic Piano on iPhone

Popular iPad music-making app makes the leap to the smaller screen with in-app store for new music.

iOS developer Smule has ported its Magic Piano music app from iPad to iPhone, but with a new pricing model that makes the app free to download.

Released last year alongside Apple's first iPad, Magic Piano won praise for its piano-playing fun, complete with a mode that helped users play famous classical music pieces.

That remains a paid app, costing £1.79 on the App Store. However, the newly-released iPhone version is free, and funded by in-app purchases of songs. Among those to be made available first are Lady Gaga's Poker Face and Bad Romance, along with The Entertainer, Mad World and How To Save a Life.

The new version also heralds Magic Piano's shift from being purely about classical music, to an equal focus on pop hits - something that may give it more mainstream appeal. The iPhone version includes similar social features to the iPad original, allowing players to share their performances and rate one another's playing.