With MySpace no longer the space of many and the crowds having dispersed from Crowdmix, evidence suggests that music-focused social media put on a good show but have a hard time keeping the audience. One may then wonder if music fans really want to bond with their peers or strengthen their pre-existing bond with their artist. From Magaluf club snaps to propaganda dressed as news, social media is teeming with posts a music junkie may not care to see: while lovers of cat GIFS are given the red carpet treatment, they drown in non-music content. How then would a utopian, Denmark-esque social media platform tailored to musicians and fans look?

Can you put me through to…?

Musicians’ pages on most social networks look much like the page of any other business – with all the scrolling, loading and redirecting, the music itself can be hard to arrive at. In the wake of the aforementioned now defunct platforms, it seems fair to ask what exactly music fans are looking for when they look up an artist. Chances are high that they already know the music, and want to browse additional content, or find out when they’re playing next, but wouldn’t it also be convenient and beneficial for the artist, for the raw material to be more easily accessible that it currently is on most platforms of this nature. The social media realm of a musician represents a place of connection with the artist, as such, it should be easy to sift through photos, read updates, or play their latest single, without much effort. There is also room for more meaningful connection than leaving a comment on a photo, amongst 500 others.

Talk that talk

With the existence of smart devices, there are possible new paths for listeners and music-makers to walk down together,
interacting on the way: on a new hub, for example, voice messages sent via smart voice-activated devices, and group video chats would be more commonplace, and AI-powered chatbots could give more detailed information about lyrical content. Imagine personalised messages sent from artists to their biggest fans, or cover version competitions, all carried out by voice command.

Next part of this blog series coming soon