New app developed in Sudbury aims to do for music what Instagram did for photos

CBC

07-05-2025

A new app developed in Sudbury is helping people write songs together without needing to have all the musical skills themselves.
Charulatha Vijayakumar, a recent graduate of mobile application development and project management at Cambrian College, created the app Collsong for amateur artists who want to express themselves musically.
"The idea is that anyone who has the talent to write poems or create tunes or sing should be able to create a song without depending on the other two talents," said Vijayakumar.
She said the app allows people to upload poems, create tunes, or sing, that can then be mixed in with existing lyrics or melodies created by other users.
"I want to create the platform for most people like me, who are not a music professional, but who just want to do it for fun, who just want to express themselves artistically in a musical way," she said.
Vijayakumar said she was inspired to create the app by her father who passed away when she was three-and-a-half years old, but left behind a diary of poems that she wanted to share.
"I always want to use that poem somewhere, because I'm like I don't want to let those poems go to waste," she said.
Collaborating with others
Melissa Deschênes has been testing the Collsong app and said she feels it allows her to explore her musical creativity, even though she's not a professional musician.
"I really enjoy it. I'm, by all means, not a professional. I enjoy karaoke. I enjoy singing. But, you know. You can't take that too far. So being able to collaborate with others, I think, is a really great opportunity to explore," Deschênes said.
Vijayakumar's future plans for the app include adding a feature that helps users create music by suggesting chord progressions based on emotions and instruments.
"If Instagram is for photos and Tiktok is for videos, Collsong, that's for music. Because everyone who is uploading photos on Instagram is not a professional photographer, but we still upload photos for the fun of it, for the fun of creating it, for the fun of sharing with our friends," she said.
She explained that the app is currently in beta testing and available through TestFlight for iOS users, but not yet in the App Store or Google Play Store.