I don’t live in a city that Soundwalk has produced a tour for yet, but I plan on visiting a couple of them in the next year so this actually is kind of compelling for me. This is such a cool concept and what a great idea for the iPhone/iPod touch. I can see this developing into something even bigger with the introduction of augmented reality apps, and geo-tagging courtesy of the iPhone GPS setup.

Soundwalk software produces audio tours in which the listener is able to step into the shoes of a the narrator who walks you through the neighborhood streets and local hang-outs that they live with or grew up in.

The company has created over 40 walking tours. 20 of them are in New York city, 10 or so are in Paris, with others for European cities and exotic locals like Varanasi India. The content ranges from a “Birth of Hip Hop” tour in the Bronx, which is narrated by Jazzy Jay and Afrika Bambaataa, to a Memorial Walk around the World Trade Center Ground Zero with author Paul Auster. In addition they have created a three-city tour in conjuction with Louis Vuitton for China, featuring Gong Li, Joan Chen, and Shu Qi. There is a unique sound experience for the Chanel Mobile Art Container, featuring the voice of Jeanne Moreau. For  Sony Pictures they have produced the official Da Vinci Code Tour of the Louvre with Jean Reno.

The latest release is “Stark Mix” a unique 24 hour audio mix selected composed and arranged by Soundwalk for French designer Phillip Stark. Whenever the listener presses play, the soundtrack will begin from the current time zone that he is in. No matter where in the world he is at any point.

Each Soundwalk tour is available for purchase from the Soundwalk site for $5.99 and when I did a search on the iPhone app store it looks like there are a select few that can be downloaded to your iPhone for free. Good marketing technique on their part. Get you hooked so you want to purchase more.