Launchpad 2017
Hugo Xiong

Hugo Xiong

Co-Founder and CEO

Primary Audience: Undergrad, Community College, High School

Roxxem is an app that helps teachers engage their students with authentic music. Teachers can choose from hundreds of their favorite songs and turn listening into a fun activity with Roxxem’s interactive song-based lessons and games. They can play live classroom games or assign songs for homework and track student progress. Built by language teachers, for language teachers. The song-based lessons and games incorporated with the latest AI technology behind-the-scenes to generate grammatical and contextual information make learning a new language through music interactive, deep, and compelling.

LaunchPad Questions

During the LaunchPad, the audience had an opportunity to ask questions about the products. The Tech Center shared those questions with the entrepreneurs and here are the responses. 

How do you handle getting the rights to songs?

All our music videos come from YouTube, and when possible from the official artist channel. We fully comply with the YouTube Terms of Service which allows embedding of these videos on other platforms.

How is Roxxem different from similar products like Lyricstraining?

Lyricstraining is great. Roxxem is different because it is specifically designed for language teachers and has many features for teachers like live classroom games and assigning songs for homework. We also have deeper language learning features like lessons and automatically tracking the words that users are learning as they progress through songs.

Are lessons created available for other teacher users to purchase or for free?

All songs and song lessons that are created are free.

Why did you decide to target teachers instead of learners? What if they used it directly?

Individual learners can and do use Roxxem on their own. Go to the Apple or Android App Store and start learning with Roxxem for free! That said, we are focused primarily focused on language teachers because that who we are—language teachers—and we know teachers need something like this!

It seems that the games don’t work on a phone platform (too small screen it says) Any plans to modify that?

Most of our games do work on phones! However, teachers can only start a live classroom game with a larger device like a tablet or desktop. The reason is that the game interface is more complex and it’s not a good experience to try to manage on a phone. (Students can join a live classroom game and play on a phone, however.)

How do you deal with explicit lyrics, especially in K-12 settings?

When you create a class, you have the option to control the maturity rating of the songs that students are allowed to see in the Roxxem Song Library. We have four song maturity ratings: G, PG, PG-13, and R. By default, only G and PG rated songs are enabled.

Are all the music videos vetted to be G rated or can the teacher hide the video and just play the song? Teachers can’t use inappropriate videos.

Our music videos have different maturity ratings, so teachers can filter to see only G-rated songs. It is also possible for the teacher to hide the video (by not projecting it to the class) and just play the song.

What do you mean by “authentic”? Why is learning language through songs “authentic”?

Simply

Are there not copyright concerns, especially if something about this is monetized?

See our answer above to the first question.

Is the app not blocked by schools whose networks block YouTube?

Unfortunately, schools that block YouTube will not be able to use Roxxem.

Price?

Roxxem has a basic plan that is completely free, and which includes all songs, lessons, and games. Our Pro Teacher plan costs $59.99 per year (unlimited students), and allows teachers to create classes, assign songs for homework, track student progress, and access more advanced game options. You can find out more details at roxxem.com/pricing.

Can I choose my own song or is there a set to choose from?

We have an existing library of hundreds of the most popular songs in different languages. We are also working on an AI-powered public song editor that will allow users to add any song in any language, which we hope to launch later this year.

How many songs do you support? Can I add my own songs? Is it a lot of work

See our answer above.

Do you have Arabic songs?

Not yet, however, we certainly hope to be able to support Arabic and other right-to-left languages at some future date.

Is your product free for certain usages of songs per semester?

All songs on Roxxem are completely free. There is no usage limit.

What languages does Roxxem support? Plans for more?

Right now, we support Spanish, French, Chinese, and German. With the launch of the public song editor, we plan to support English as well as other languages.

It doesn't seem to be supported by Android...are there any limitations? Or is it a problem of my phone? 😄

Roxxem does have an Android app. However, it only works on newer Android operating system versions, so you may need to update your phone software.

Can the translation be taken out from the songs?

Yes, users have the option to turn off song translations.

Contact Information

TECH CENTER

1890 East West Road

Moore Hall 256

Honolulu, HI 96822

tech.center@hawaii.edu

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The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center is funded under a grant from the Institute of International Education (IIE), acting as the administrative agent of the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO) for The Language Flagship. One should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project P.I.: Dr. Julio C. Rodriguez