Spotify Local Sounds
Adding a new element to the music listening experience: geography.
Spotify has grown tremendously since its inception in 2006, boasting over 380 million monthly annual users as of September 2021. The application provides over 70 million songs in a constantly updated library and is available in 180+ countries as of October 2021. This latter fact is what we will be using to enhance the listening experience for users and potentially introduce them to new music and cultures.
People try local food all the time when visiting new places, as they consider food to be a vital aspect of culture - and it is. So why don’t they try the local music?
Music has been a defining factor of human culture ever since our ancestors first banged rocks together. Spotify, with its digital presence, should look to help its users fall in love with other cultures - a love that the global population has desperately lacked. And with the current social and political climates, there is no better time for Spotify to lead the charge and promote an understanding between cultures through music.
By utilizing location services on the mobile Spotify app, Spotify could be able to track locations, and under this strategy, would be able to suggest new music to listeners based on where they are. This new music, preferably, would be local hits or songs/artists who are culturally important to the region where the user is currently located. This would allow users to explore their vacation destinations more and get a truer foreign experience or allow them to simply discover what music makes their hometown so great.
While I’m not the most knowledgeable about other countries, I know even within the United States there is immense potential for this new plan for geographical application. The local sounds of different cities - even boroughs - are so unique, weaving stories about the land and its people. New Orleans sounds completely different than New York. And even within New York, Queens sounds completely different than Brooklyn.
Eminem’s first album, “Infinite”
The Detroit-based rapper was largely influenced by famous New York artists, AZ and Nas.
And while there are differences, there will also be similarities. Eminem, a hip hop artist who defined Detroit’s sound for some time, drew strong inspiration from his earliest work, the album “Infinite”, from New York-based rappers like AZ and Nas (Brooklyn and Queens respectively). But as time went on, and Eminem developed as an artist, he found his own, truly unique sound - a sound that millions around the globe have become familiar with. This sound is starkly different than the music of AZ and Nas, but the stories that are embedded in Eminem’s growth are embedded also in his music, and thereby embedded in Detroit’s musical culture as well. These little stories, about the differences and similarities of us, as people, are what really bring us all together.
Spotify can help unlock these stories, and expose us all to something familiarly new.
The Process:
As I wrote above, location services are crucial to this plan - without them, the idea is essentially moot. While mobile app users generally don’t like being tracked, I believe that avid music listeners would be very perceptive to being tracked for the purpose of being introduced to new music. That being said, while mobile app users often don’t like to be tracked, they do, for the most part, feel safe even when an app uses location services.
Secondly, Spotify would need to make use of something it has done for a very long time now - playlist curation. I propose three initial types of playlists: “Local Hits”, “Journey Through [Region]”, and “Sounds of [Region]”.
Local Hits: Popular contemporary music within the region
Journey Through [Region]: Exploration of the history and evolution of music within the region.
Sounds of [Region]: Iconic music that is associated with the region
Spotify would then suggest these playlists to users based on their locations.
As an additional option, we could implement a “virtual vacation” of sorts, by allowing users to discover these playlists without having to be in specific locations (ex. a New York resident simply wanting to learn more about musical history in California).
In our final step, we would use listening habits and preferences to generate a geographical profile, and inform users on where their music tastes originate from. What parts of the world have found their ways into their ears? “Where are you from, musically?”
This final step doesn’t really hinge on location services or presenting them with playlists. However, once we generate a profile for a user, we could then suggest the playlists from Step 2, promoting musical and cultural diversity.
Where do your ears say you’re from?