You have seen the setup at a wedding. A vintage phone sits on a table, guests pick it up during the night and leave a voicemail. Afterwards the couple gets the audio files, sometimes a web page to play them on, sometimes a vinyl record pressed with the best ones.
It is lovely on the night. The catch shows up later. The messages live as loose recordings you have to go looking for, only the people in the room got to speak, and there is nothing to put on a shelf. Anyone who could not travel never gets a page.
Chorus starts with a link instead of a phone. You share one link, and everyone records from wherever they are, before the day or long after it. A grandparent on a landline, a friend three time zones away, a cousin who is too shy to speak at a party and writes their message instead. Every voice lands in the same place.
Then Chorus makes the book. Each message is written out and laid out a page per person, signed with who they are and how they know the one it is for. You can still play the real voice from the page. So it works a year later, in your hands, with everyone in it, not only the people who made it to the room.
| What you want | Chorus | Audio guest book (phone) | Digital guest book | StoryWorth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone records from anywhere, any time | Yes | Event only | Yes | One person |
| You get a printed book | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Many people's voices in it | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Each message written out and signed | Yes | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| Play the real voice | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works for a birthday, baby or memorial too | Yes | Wedding-first | Wedding-first | Life story |
The short version: a phone rental captures the night, a digital guest book captures the event, StoryWorth captures one person's life. Chorus captures a room full of voices and gives them back as a book.
The person doing the organising is usually one step back from the moment. The daughter planning her dad's 60th. A friend of the couple. An aunt for a new baby. A parent recording for their own child, year after year, so there is something to hand over later. And, gently, a family gathering voices of someone they have lost, where the book holds their people's memories.
Every message, to keep and play. Digital.
A printed book of all of it. Posted to you.
The book, plus copies for the people who matter.
No. People open the link, tap record and talk. It works in the browser on any phone or laptop.
As many as you want. Some books have six voices, some have sixty. The one link works the same either way.
They can write their message instead. It sits in the book beside everyone else's the same way.
That is the point of it. Anyone with the link records from wherever they are, before the day or after it.