Group Claims Columbia Company Destroyed Their Business

News 19 WLTX

Columbia, SC (WLTX) - A nasty legal battle is brewing between two technology companies.

Defamation, fraud and discrimination are the accusations.

SmartPhoneRecords is a California-based company that allows artists to share music from their cell phones on a mobile application.

The company partnered with 52inc., a Columbia-based design and development studio that builds apps for companies.

SmartPhoneRecords has filed a lengthy lawsuit against 52inc.

“They promised to rebuild our new platform for us. They never did,” Damion Hollomon of SmartPhoneRecords explained.

“It is a nightmare because it's simple if you destroy our stuff, you have to make us whole you have to fix it, you can't leave us broken,” SmartPhoneRecords’ Reyna Carrasco said.

The group says 52inc of Columbia stole their ideas, discriminated against them, deleted their database and destroyed their business after they had worked out a partnership back in 2015 through the USC/Columbia Tech Incubator.....continue reading

Massive Tech Incubator Scandal Rocks USC | FITSNews

FEDERAL COURT CASE ALLEGES CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD ENTREPRENEURS …

A pair of California-based entrepreneurs have filed a federal lawsuit against the University of South Carolina, its president Harris Pastides, a government-run “jobs” authority, a Columbia, S.C.-based law firm and a host of other plaintiffs alleging that the school’s high tech “incubator” engaged in a conspiracy to steal their work.

Damion Hollomon and Reyna Carrasco – creators of SmartPhoneRecords – filed their suit earlier this month in U.S. District Court in California.

According to the pleading, Hollomon and Carrasco applied to USC’s technology incubator program – FiredUP...continue reading on FITSNews

USC upstart incubator program in lawsuit with once participant SmartPhoneRecords

Procedural meltdowns and a potential breach of contract have helped hatch a lawsuit between a University of South Carolina incubator program and a business upstart previously participating in the program, according to court documents.

Litigation is ongoing between a partner company, 52 Apps, Inc., from the USC program and a former incubator participant, SmartPhoneRecords, or SPR. The firedUP incubator program at USC partners with applicant upstart businesses and their founders to provide support, guidance and potential capital to help get upstarts off the ground, according to its website.

SPR, the participant upstart involved in the suit...continue reading

New Updates Available Now!

Hey SPR Family,

We've just released some great new updates and we couldn't wait to share it with you!  The video below and the press release have all the details so be sure to check it out. We'd like to thank everyone for hanging in there with us.  We're just getting started and have a lot more to come so if you like what you see or just need some assistance with the app don't hesitate to send us a message at info@smartphonerecords.com. Many thanks!

GarageBand, Stripe, Dropbox, BeatMaker 2, and More ALL Compatible with SPR!

We want to thank everyone for downloading SPR and for the great feedback. Today we want to cover all the ways in which you can upload your tracks to our updated platform and get paid. In other words, whether you make your music in a state-of-the-art studio or create them on your smartphone, SmartPhoneRecords has you covered. Below you'll learn just how compatible your favorite music making and file sharing apps are with our interface so that now anyone can upload and sell their music. Check it out:

iOS
- Use the 'Open in' option to load files

Android
- Use "Choose A File To Upload" option to load files

Q. What audio format can I upload?

A. .m4a format for best results (aac)

Q. What is the recommended Album Cover size?

A. 1024 X 1024

Q. Method of upload accepted?

A. iPhone, Android & Website

Q. How do I get paid?

A. Activate your "Tip Button" in the app.  Connect your Stripe account with SPR and get paid directly to your bank account. 

Q. How much does it cost?

A. Absolutely nothing, it's all FREE!

Ways to upload your tracks to SPR:

SPR Website

SmartPhoneRecords.com - If you create music in a studio with a PC available, upload your tracks via our website at SmartPhoneRecords.com

GarageBand

GarageBand - GarageBand turns your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play a piano, organ, guitar, and drums. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. Enjoy Smart Instruments that make you sound like a pro — even if you’ve never played a note before. 

To Upload your GarageBand tracks to SPR:
1.  Select track & press share
2.  Open in...
3.  Share Song (Choose Audio Quality)
4.  Copy to SPR

Upload your tracks to SPR with GarageBand

MusicStudio

MusicStudio - Music Studio offers a complete music production environment for the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch with features and a sound quality previously only known to desktop applications and expensive audio hardware.

It combines a piano keyboard, 118 studio-quality instruments with sustain, a fully fledged 127-track sequencer, extensive note editing, reverb, real-time effects and much more on a user-friendly interface.

To Upload your MusicStudio tracks to SPR:
1.  Select project
2.  Export file
3.  Convert to AAC (.m4a file)
4.  Press share
5.  Open with...
6.  Copy to SPR

Add our tracks to SPR with MusicStudio

BeatMaker 2

BeatMaker 2 - the most advanced mobile music workstation. Combining music production tools that were behind the success of countless artists, BeatMaker 2 is a powerful, easy-to-use composition interface for amateurs and professionals alike.  Build your own virtual home-studio, create multiple instruments and connect them to a full-range of audio effects.  Compose, record, arrange and transform your ideas into complete songs, ready to be shared with others. Import your own sounds or use the sound library provided: more than 170 high-quality instrument and drum presets from synthesizers to realistic orchestral sounds. You can even export our songs to Dropbox and straight to your SPR account!

To Upload your BeatMaker 2 tracks to SPR:
1.  Select share
2.  Upload tracks to Dropbox (Dropbox Instructions Below)

Upload Tracks to Dropbox then to SPR

Dropbox

Dropbox - Dropbox is the place for your photos, docs, videos, and music. Files you keep in Dropbox are safely backed up and you can get to them from all your devices. It’s easy to send large files to anyone, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account.

To Upload your audio tracks to SPR:
1.  Select track & press share
2.  Open in...
3.  Copy to SPR

Add your tracks to SPR with Dropbox

Convert Audio

Convert Audio - Convert Audio allows you to convert almost all known audio formats to the below mentioned formats! Convert existing audio files and after the conversion you can add them to your SPR account!  How can we convert almost every file on your phone? Well, the converting is accomplished by uploading your file to the cloud where it will be converted and downloaded back to your phone (and deleted from our servers). This all occurs really fast and while the converting is being done you can just continue using your phone.

Convert: AAC, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, OGG, OPUS, or WAV to M4A

To Upload your converted tracks to SPR:
1.  Convert audio 
2.  Select track
3.  Open...
4.  Copy to SPR

Convert your audio file to .m4a (aac) advanced audio coding

Resize It Free

Resize It - helps you resize your photos or artwork to save and upload for your SPR album cover art.
It works on every device with iOS 7.0 or higher.

To resize photos:
1.  Select track
2.  Resize and press "ok"

Resize your album cover size to 1024 X 1024

How to activate your Tip Button and make money:

Stripe

Stripe - In the mobile app connect your Stripe account with SPR and get paid directly to your bank account. 

• One time process
• Your fans can tip you without leaving the app
• Money goes straight to your bank account
• Receive a push notification every time you make money

To connect account:

1.  On the settings page press "Manage Payment"
2.  Press "Receive Tips"
3.  Create your account (or connect your existing Stripe account) and that's it!

Active your Tip Button by connecting your Stripe account

Let us know what you think. We are still working on improving your experience, and will have more updates very soon! Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and added content to the app. We appreciate you! Like always, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to reach contact us at info@smartphonerecords.com.

SmartPhoneRecords

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SPR Founders write their first book!

Available in Paperback and eBook

Nope, your eyes aren't deceiving you. It's our third blog in three days! That's because we have so many things going on that we simply can't wait around until Monday to let you in on the latest--which happens to be the news that we have written and published our very first book called Shut Up and Startup! What better way to end the year, right? Which also means it's a great time for you to check it out and let us know what you think. The reason for writing the book was that I felt there were so many business books out there that left me confused and overwhelmed when I was trying to build SmartPhoneRecords. So I decided that I would pen my thoughts and ideas with anyone who may be considering starting a business of their own, but in a much simpler way, using practical approaches that I adopted along our journey. 

There's always someone out there who dreams of starting a business but has no clue how or where to begin. If this is you or even someone you know, it's definitely worth checking out! Preorder now at www.shutupandstartupbook.com to start the New Year off on the right entrepreneurial foot. Best 50 pages you'll read all year! Don't forget to let us know what you think at @SmartPhoneRecs on Twitter or info@smartphonerecords.com. We appreciate you!!

2.0 Feedback - Keep it coming!

Happy Tuesday everybody! I know we usually post on Mondays but we wanted to send out a quick one to let you know that we're getting some great feedback about the new version. We are working hard to correct the few glitches that have been reported and should have everything smoothed out in no time. We thank you for every email and tweet of support that we've received as well as those who have pointed out the things that need fixing. Keep them coming! Reach us on Twitter at @SmartPhoneRecs or by email at info@SmartPhoneRecords.com. We appreciate you!     P.S.--For those who inquired, be sure your audio file is in .m4a format and your track image is 1024x1024. In case it helps, there are websites that convert audio files for free like audio.online-convert.com and sites that resize photos for free such as imageresize.org Please try it out and let us know what you think. Thank you for your patience!