By Keith Nelson Jr.

In October of 2012, Spotify app Soundrop was an indicator of a shift in the artist-fan relationship with its digital listening session for Interscope Records rapper Kendrick Lamar’s now Gold-certified album, good kid, mAAd city.  Over 40,000 people at one point chatted with Kendrick and voted for the next song the room would play, thus creating more dialogue and this phenomenon of social playlisting.

How does a service built on the constant growth of an interactive community advance its social listening rooms? Forge a partnership with the goliaths of social media: Facebook and YouTube/VEVO.

Today, Soundrop unveils its next step in making music social with the establishment of cross-platform integration with Facebook and YouTube/VEVO. As of this moment, artists can easily embed their Soundrop rooms onto their personal Facebook page here, tapping into the word-of-mouth potential of 693 million active Facebook users. YouTube/VEVO will handle the playback of the music, and fans on both Facebook and Spotify will be able to vote on songs for these newly connected rooms. Fans in the in-app chatroom on Spotify will also be able to communicate with those in the Soundrop chatrooms on Facebook in real-time.

SoundCtrl interviewed Soundrop CEO and co-founder Inge Andre Sandvik to delve deeper into the significance of the recent partnership as well as gauge Soundrop’s potential influence on artists’ careers in the constantly digitizing music industry.

SoundCtrl: The press release places an emphasis on improving video traffic and playback is handled by YouTube/VEVO. Will music videos be played or will video traffic be related to songs played over YouTube/VEVO?

Inge Andre Sandvik: We’re focused on helping artists accelerate their traffic, no matter what platform their fans prefer to use. On Facebook, we use VEVO and YouTube for playback, so we’re actually helping artists increase their video counts. In Spotify, we’re helping them increase their Spotify streams. We always want to drive traffic where the artist has licensed their content, so the artist is always in control of the videos presented in their room.

SoundCtrl: Soundrop has streamed over 500 million songs. Which artist room had the most people in it at one given time?

Inge Andre Sandvik: Kendrick Lamar is our current record holder. More than 42,000 people were simultaneously connected at any one second during his live chat. Additionally, more than 200,000 people visited his room within just a few days. This was right around the release of good kid, m.A.A.d city, which was a landmark album. Our previous champion was an event with Sebastian Ingrosso (of Swedish House Mafia) and Alesso that actually won us an award.

SoundCtrl: Are there any talks about implementing video chat or streaming music videos in a chatroom that fans can vote on? 

Inge Andre Sandvik: Actually we’re doing the latter right now. Since playback in Facebook is done through VEVO and YouTube, you could say that the fans are streaming music videos in the chat room (Soundrop of course lets you chat live with fans everywhere) and voting on them to change the playlist. We’re of course always evaluating ways of improving our service, but artists tell us that the current text chat is a very easy, low threshold way of connecting with their fans. When you add a live video component, it puts more pressure and effort on the artist and their team. We want Soundrop to be easy and fun for both fans and artists to use.

SoundCtrl: Soundrop’s integration with Facebook means real-time cross-platform conversations between Spotify and Facebook members. That is pretty innovative. Will there be any differences between the Soundrop user interface and functionality such as Facebook status updates when someone enters a Soundrop room.

Inge Andre Sandvik: The core Soundrop experience will always be cross-platform and in real-time. When you vote up a song in Soundrop in Spotify, that will be reflected in the playlist I see in Soundrop in Facebook. At the same time, it’s important to carefully use the opportunities for sharing in a way that is not spamming each listener’s social graph. We will never share activity without the user’s explicit approval.

SoundCtrl: I remember being at the Kendrick Lamar Soundrop event back in October. He garnered about 40,000 guests.  How can an upcoming artist with a relatively small fanbase benefit from Soundrop? 

Inge Andre Sandvik: 40,000 was just the beginning. There were more than 200,000 visits within a few days to the Kendrick Lamar room. It proves that people want to enjoy music in a social setting. Humans have done this for thousands of years. We’re just bringing that activity online. A Soundrop room is about giving your fans a place to connect. It’s not about the size of your tribe today, it’s about how you keep them engaged and nurture your fan base so it grows over time. We’re the perfect tool for an artist to do exactly that. And since we’re always driving to licensed content, we’re always helping an artist generate revenue. Everybody wins. Fans get a great experience, and an artist can generate more revenue.

Soundctrl: Will Soundrop’s new development deliver any analytics for artists to gauge traffic?

Inge Andre Sandvik: We provide analytics so room owners can see how their rooms are performing. Our goal is to give them unique insights in who their listeners are and what they are doing. However we see that there is much more to do there, so expect more things from us soon.

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In the next few weeks, artists such as Matisyahu, English rapper Delvin, and a few other surprises will be the first to host live chat events on the new Soundrop. In December, we discussed Facebook’s low video traffic (in relation to overall Facebook traffic) and the friction between VEVO and YouTube so Soundrop could be a beneficial middleman for all. Until that is known, let’s all listen with thy (digital) neighbor.

Stay social, people.

Keith Nelson Jr. is a music appreciator bordering on elitist trying to connect all the dots. He graduated from Syracuse University in 2010 with a B.A. in English & Textual Studies. Tweet at him at @JusAire.

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