Stereomood, or how Spotify became emotional

Of all areas of Trend Forecasting, I find music might be one of the hardest to work on. There are so many different groups, genres, artists, styles... Or maybe, and precisely because of this, it should be easier to forecast the next "sound", as the more information, the better you can extract conclusions.

Either way, I find the world of music nowadays is in constant evolution. And I am not talking about music per se, but the format, or the packaging, if you prefer the metaphor. A few years ago, this little company called Apple revolutionised the way we had been consuming music up till then, and gave way to the on-growing issue of piracy creating iTunes. Following came platforms like Spotify, that allowed you to listen to music on-site without buying the tracks or albums (at least so it was initially). This tools were determinant to where the music industry should be heading, for they addressed perfectly to the new consumer (savvy, determined, with clear knowledge of what they want and a taste for innovation and classy-coolness) and their needs.

12 years later, consumers have implemented the iTunes system and adopted Spotify as their music database, and now seek for the next best thing. Well, after attending Campus Party in London last week, I realised how much someone is hitting the spot again. Stereomood. Many of you will have already heard about it and probably become users. For those who haven't: addressing to a much more relaxed type of consumer than Spotify, Stereomood presents you with several choices of moods you can select from (according to yours), and provides you with a series of playlists that suit. In other words, indie music (for they work not with commercial artists) tagged under a certain mood category that you introduce yourself in the search bar. In other words, automatically building an emotional connection between you and the artist (that you even named yourself!).

Eleonora Viviani
Founder of Stereomood

Sounds like a brilliant way to build strong relationships between new artists and a consumer that would otherwise probably never even hear of them. And in a society that heads everyday more towards hyper-customisation, seems to me like there is a bright future for this platform.

Are you in the mood? Follow your gut!