By Keith Nelson Jr.
A precocious genius, Spotify reps, and 40,000 people walked into a room. No joke, that was Spotify’s October 25th live chat with Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope Records artist Kendrick Lamar on the newly revamped Soundrop Spotify app. Soundrop is a social music service which allows users to listen to music in real-time with other users in virtual rooms. Users suggest and vote for which song is played next, with an in-app chat client to communicate. With Kendrick’s major label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city being released last week, Soundrop acted as a digital record release party.
Once Kendrick arrived, the inundation of comments commenced and Soundrop’s new features quickly displayed their usefulness. Three tabs in the chat client (Activity, Messages, Everything) allow switching between monitoring new room entrances and song changes (Activity), what is being said (Messages) and both along with current song voting (Everything). The song voting received an ingenious tweak with the addition of a preview button intermixed with the chat room activity so users can test out songs before voting. The flurry of questions and hashtags did not drown out Kendrick’s messages as each were highlighted at the top of the chat stream.
In the midst of Spotify Artist/Label relations Jordan Walker’s “GKMC” exclamations and fans general banter, Kendrick fielded the questions frequently asked in the chatroom. Once the pervasive question turned to room-favorite “Cookies & Cereal” and its omission from the album, Kendrick informed the room of sample clearance issues. Hours before Complex.com released Kendrick’s response to the overwhelming “classic album” praise he has been receiving (a dominant question in the live chat), Kendrick gave the room his statement:
“It’s a classic for our generation. People will appreciate it as time passes.”
Announcements such as these and the real-time song commentary exemplified Spotify and Soundrop’s goal to make music social and unveiled a new medium for artists and fan interaction.
Exclusivity is the true way to curb piracy. The Soundrop experience resembled a digital listening session and a personal Q&A at the same time. New profile pages, ability to see what rooms friends are in and in-chat member activity tracker transform Soundrop from a complimentary add-on of Spotify’s social ambitions into a hub for developing communities. In August of 2011, Belgian-Australian musician Goteye held a video conference with five fans on Google+ Hangout in promotion of his Making Mirrors album. With over 40,000 users logging into Kendrick’s live chat, Soundrop’s new iteration doubles as another innovative resource for artists to deliver exclusive content and Spotify’s best example of social music.
Keep connecting, people.
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