Former Topshop CMO launches social network

Video: How Tunepics works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx46CKbXTBk?rel=0

Tunepics is available for free today (22 May) on iPhone and iPad in more than 150 countries, with an Android version due to launch later this year. Users upload an image, pick a preview clip of a music track from the 35 million available on iTunes and spin an “emotional wheel” which lets them choose from an array of coloured emotions to display how they are feeling.

The app will not feature advertising to begin with and instead will be monetised through the tie-up with Apple. Tunepics will receive a cut from the revenue generated by users who listen to a clip on the app and go on to buy the full track on iTunes.

The partnership with Apple will also benefit Tunepics in terms of placement on the app store, helping to grow awareness of the app.

Brands already affiliated with the platform, which was created by AKQA, include Asos, Airbnb, Primark and AllSaints. Celebrities including Jamie Oliver, Kate Bosworth and will.i.am have also signed up to use the platform.

Future developments planned for the app include a feature that will show what a whole country is feeling or listening to at the moment. A similar feature is available on the popular music discovery app Shazam.

Justin Cooke, now CEO of Tunepics, says: “I’ve always had a fascination with music, colour, images and the weather and how they influence our mood and emotions. I want people to be able to share the depth behind the moments they experience and to articulate all the ones that they dream of having. This is a magical and cinematic celebration of people’s lives that touches all of our senses. Music is the most powerful way to express the things we see and feel; nothing else comes close. With Tunepics, everyone can create a soundtrack to their life.”

Today (22 May) he tweeted that the app was adding “hundreds of thousands of users every 10 minutes” and posited that Tunepics could be the “fastest growing social network in the world”.

Cooke left Topshop, where he was the company’s first chief marketing officer, after less than a year in the role last September to set up his Innovate7 consultancy, a company that promised to “bring innovation to business” and “disrupt industries”. 

At Topshop he was responsible for marketing the retailer overseas, particularly in the US and China.

Cooke joined Topshop in 2012 from Burberry, where he was vice president of PR, events, copy and translation. There, he was credited with playing a major role in the revival of the British heritage fashion brand during his six year tenure.