Jay-Z won't approve, but Smule's new app lets anyone get in on the vocal-tweaky craze.
Hip-hop star T-Pain has launched a branded iPhone application called I Am T-Pain, which brings the popular (yet much-maligned) Auto-Tune technology to Apple's devices.
Auto-Tune? It's the vocal effect that's made seemingly every big R&B star sound like a vocoder-toting robot in the last year, although a rising backlash led by rapper Jay-Z has also earned headlines.
The iPhone app is the work of Smule, which is best known for its Ocarina and Leaf Trombone iPhone music apps. The T-Pain app provides five of the star's songs to sing along with, applying an Auto-Tune effect to the user's vocals.
They can then share the resulting track with friends via email, or on Facebook and MySpace. Smule is also using Apple's in-app payments feature to allow more tracks to be downloaded: besides T-Pain, stars include Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and Ludacris.
Auto-Tune haters won't approve, but we sense I Am T-Pain might be the most popular iPhone music app yet.
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