Fox Digital Entertainment has debuted a Glee application in conjunction with the new season, letting users sing along with music from the show and create their own virtual glee clubs.

Fox teamed up with Smule to produce the application, which is available for Apple?s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad for $2.99. Fox hopes to extend fans? experience with the television show and create a new experience with their friends and community.

?We wanted this app to capture the spirit of the show,? said Dr. Ge Wang, cofounder and chief technology officer of Smule, Palo Alto, CA. ?We are still working with Fox and are really stoked about this app.

?The show was built with a vision behind it and this app is about being part of something bigger ? it?s also what the show is about,? he said.

The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable and direct-broadcast satellite TV properties. It is wholly-owned and controlled by the media conglomerate News Corp., which is chaired and part-owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Smule develops interactive sonic applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Here is a screen grab of the iPad application:

Glee club karaoke
Consumers can download their favorite songs from the show?s soundtrack and sing along to the actual cast recording.

Users can record their own versions of songs such as ?Rehab? and ?Somebody to Love? and share songs with friends via Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Consumers can also buy additional tracks and broadcast their version of a song to other users of the application around the world on a virtual radio tower, located in the application on the Glee Globe.

Music app for everyone
The application is also designed for tone-deaf users and provides subtle voice enhancement ? if selected ? to ensure that even novice singers sound better, the company claims.

The application can also create three-part harmony from a single voice, so even solo singers can create glee-club sounds.

Smule has a catalog of songs from the show, which are being updated periodically.

?We want people to have a great time singing,? Mr. Wang said. ?This is for people who sing already, people who don?t sing or are shy about singing.?

Here is another screen grab of the application:

Virtual glee clubs
Consumers can create their own virtual glee clubs by inviting their friends to perform together.

When invited to join a specific song, each user adds their own voice and those voices are combined and harmonized to create song recordings.

According to Mr. Wang, the application tracks your voice and automatically harmonizes it. The application then chops up the voice sonic particles.

?Our technology makes you sound good,? Mr. Wang said. ?We are exploring a number of other collaborations.

?Going forward, we really want to make things that do justice and deeply represent the artist,? he said. ?This is actually the most technological sophisticated app that we did.?