Musicians have to keep up with the latest trends of getting their music to the ears of listeners and a huge trend to come out in the last few years has been the iPhone and iPod Touch Apps in the app store on iTunes and this is only going to get bigger due to the iPad which can also use these apps.

I have previously looked into how to make one of these apps myself, you have to register with Apple as a Developer, own a Mac and know a thing or two about programming. This is a lot to do if you're just trying to make a simple app for your own music.

It doesn't get any better by hiring a freelancer as it can cost 3 to 4 figure $ amount and that comes with certain risks too as you don't know what the final app will be like. So unfortunately for the not so nerdy and/or broke musician it seems a little hard to get one of these apps made up.

Fortunately the good people over at MixMatchMusic have come up with a solution to this problem thanks to their online site they call
MobBase which allows you to create and design your app within your browser.

I used MobBase recently to create a iPhone App which is. It was simple to use, cheap and because it is designed with musicians and bands in mind, I thought is was well worth a mention on here.

The main editing screen of MobBase allows you to put your app together by designing the look of it and allowing you to add different sections to your app. These sections are all extremely useful and allow you to integrate with sites like Twitter and YouTube with no programming experience required. The sections pretty much include nearly everything you would need to keep your fans happy and using your app to find out the latest info on your music, here's a quick look at each of the available sections...

• Discography - Add your albums, create a track listing, add artwork, credits and links to where the tracks can be bought.
• Music - Sort out which music is playable within the app, you get to store the music on MobBases servers for streaming purposes.
• Shows - Using an ArtistData XML feed you can keep your fans updated with where you are next playing live.
• Photos - With integration into Flickr and Picasa you can show off any Photos or Artwork
• Videos - Use YouTube to upload your videos and because of YouTube support by Apple your latest videos will play within your app.
• Twitter - Want to let your fans know what you had for breakfast, then keep them updated within your app.
• Bio - Add a picture and some info about you and your music.
• News - Pulls your latest news about your music in from an RSS feed from your web site or from somewhere else.
• Blog - If you're keeping a blog about your music, just add the RSS feed and keep everyone updated.
• Store - Link to where fans can buy your merchandise.
• Sites - Keep a list of places you can be found, basically anywhere you have a net presence.

Since my app has been available in the iTunes store and I have used it myself, I must say that I am pretty pleased with the results and the price is pretty decent too at a base rate of just $15 a month for up to 500 installs and just $5 a month for every thousand installs after that. This works out a lot cheaper than any freelancer can offer and the MobBase team are always on the lookout for ways to improve the app, so your basically getting future updates included in that price.

Making your app in the MobBase is pretty easy as the MobBase dashboard is very easy to use and allows you to make an app very quickly. The dashboard can also be used after the app has been sent off to the Apple app store so you can add new information, new tracks and change settings around. Most of the updates such as adding new tracks will appear in real time in the app allowing you to keep the app upto date yourself and keeping the app fresh for fans.

You get full control over all the info in the app store, you can even sell your app if you think that people will want like to pay to use it. The MobBase panel allows you to keep an eye on how many installs your app is getting.

Having your own iPhone app could that little extra way of keeping your fans in the know and maybe even gaining a few more fans too when they stumble upon your app in the app store. To get a good idea of what the app can do, I suggest that you go into iTunes and just do a search for MobBase to see all the apps that have been made with the website.

Visit MobBase to find out more or get started making a iPhone app.