Facebook's Collab App Lets You Make Music Together While Apart

Facebook’s NPE team last week announced Collab, a new experimental app that lets you create collaborative music videos, with others, wherever you are.

Music is an essential creative outlet for people, especially during times when going outside isn’t an option – as was the recent case of the COVID-19 lockdown across the globe. Companies like Roland, Korg, and Moog all made music apps free for people while they are stuck at home.

Now, Facebook’s NPE team – its experimental app division – has announced an invite-only beta of Collab, “a new iOS app that brings together creators and fans to create, watch, and mix and match original videos, starting with music.”

Collab lets people unlock their creativity by creating collaborative original music videos from wherever they are. As so many people around the world are still sheltering in place, NPE has released the app sooner than planned.

Collabs are essentially three music videos playing as one and in sync. The app lets you arrange the videos by adding your own recordings or by swiping and discovering arrangements that will complete their composition. Collab isn’t built for musicians, as no musical experience is actually needed, but I can imagine musicians might get the most use out of it.

Once a collab is created, it can be published for others to watch, and mix and match further. Users can also share their or others’ creations to Instagram, Facebook Stories, or other platforms.

Facebook’s NPE team has launched another experimental app. This time, it’s Collab, an app on iOS that lets you create collaborative music videos, with others, wherever you are.

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“Collab has made our team feel closer together, even though we are all apart, and we hope it does the same for you,” explains Brittany Mennuti, Collab Product Lead at Facebook. “We still have plenty of work left to polish the experience (disclaimer: there may be bugs and if you find an issue, please report it). With your feedback, we’ll continue iterating in an effort to build an experience that everyone enjoys.”

Collab is still in invite-only beta, so you will have to sign up for the waitlist here. Invites will open up in batches, starting with users in the US and Canada, first. You can also stay up to date on invites and everything else related to the app in the Collab Facebook Group.