Leeds art-pop connoisseurs Alt-J are certainly a ‘band of the moment’, capturing the zeitgeist like few others, especially in Australia where they are headed back to for their third visit within a year this July and could well be Splendour In The Grass’ much-touted ‘Mystery Band’.

So who better than the British quartet to help launch a brand new live music app? Last night, Alt-J played the first of two sold out shows at Brixton Academy in London, which doubled as the global launch for the beta version of soundhalo (that’s lower case, kids), a brand new app that promises to “unleash” live music by combining cutting edge technology with the passion and desire of a music fan.

The app, currently available for the Android operating system, offers downloads and streams of high-quality gig footage direct to user’s smartphones as the gig is actually happening. Meaning that the many punters who missed out on tickets to Alt-J’s Brixton show were able to catch the action live, as it happened, courtesy of the newly launched app, as the band themselves tweeted:

Soundhalo isn’t just a streaming app for live performances though, the moment Alt-J stepped off-stage, the entire concert was available in high definition video for download – track-by-track – in MP4 video recording format as well as a separate audio track.

Essentially offering an official bootleg live album of the gig as it happens. Imagine being at the Alt-J concert, the band performs their amazing indie mash-up of Dre and Kylie’s ‘Slow’, and then being able to purchase a high quality download of the live performance to your smartphone as soon as the band finishes playing it – that’s what  soundhalo is promising.

As the FAQ on soundhalo’s official website points out, the new live music app distinguishes itself from the Spotifys and Pandoras of the music tech landscape because it’s not simply a platform for live streaming, but for purchasing content as an online store – like an iTunes exclusively for concert footage and audio.

Or in the app developer’s words: “There is no ongoing cost or usage fees. Once you purchase a track its yours forever. You can download your tracks in awesome high definition quality in m4v/mp4 formats for usage on all your devices, with no Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions,” which can be synced to multiple devices such as desktop and tablet.

Soundhalo was co-founded by two Australian industry figures, CEO Liza Boston and former Hunters & Collectors guitarist Barry Palmer, who writes in a blog post on the official soundhalo website how he and Boston bonded over their shared passion of music and technology where the two hit upon their “holy grail” idea, as Palmer writes:

This was kind of perfect really because I’d been carrying around an idea that my 22-year-old music-loving-freak-of-a-son, Declan, had come up with: of capturing, in real time, a band’s live performance – the music, the visuals, the whole thing – mixed, mastered and graded straight from the stage to a smart phone in an instant, and in the process capturing that intense insane magical moment that only live music can muster.”

Alt-J keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton also wrote of his enthusiasm of the new Android app, saying, “I think the future of music and technology as an artist, and looking at how artists and fans interact, is really exciting.”

“Artistic output no longer has to be be dictated by the things it used to be,” he adds. “It used to be how much music can you fit on a vinyl record? And how long is a video cassette? Now that no longer has to be the case.”

The Alt-J gig is the first of a proposed many, with soundhalo teasing they have some major concert deals in the works with high-profile artists while the app undergoes its beta testing, and though currently only available for Android devices, development of an iOS version means iPhone users will get soundhalo in the coming months.

In serendipitous timing, another Seattle-based app is launching next Monday 20th May with a similar premise. The Android and iOS app, called Lively, captures gigs live and then offers gig-goers immediate downloads of the concert in audio and video formats for US$ 4.99 and US$ 9.99 respectively. The Lively app also contains ‘Audio Manager’ software allowing artsits to capture and sell high-quality footage and audio of their shows.

A compilation show-reel, featuring bands The Lonely Forest, Issues, Widowspeak, Damien Jurado, and Hey Marseilles performing at Seattle venues, has been released teasing the app’s official launch and an introductory video.

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