Technology has made it easier for our generation to stay connected to each other in a variety of ways. We can give thanks to the rise of social media which allows us to stay in contact with all of our friends at the click of a button. Spotify is a good example of a company that uses social media to its advantage to allow you to see the music that you’re friends are listening to in real-time.
In an effort to connect music and love, Spotify recently partnered with two match-making application companies tastebuds.fm and fellody.com. This partnership creates an interesting perspective on the music streaming service industry and poses a future competition risk to traditional dating websites. There is no doubt that social media, music, and searching for the one is an important part of our lives and now there is a platform combining them all in one place. Music is one of the most used conversation topics in dating and friendships and this created an opportunity for Spotify to enter the online-dating industry. It seems as if the possibilities are endless within the social media realm and now you can potentially find your true love on Spotify, not necessarily a bad thing.
So I bet you’re wondering what value these two dating agencies add to Spotify. Well tastebuds.fm will scan through your choice in music by looking at recently played songs as well as any playlists you have made. The company will then take that information to match you up with other people who have similar music tastes. According to research done by Tastebuds and Spotify they have observed that “…43 per cent of first messages get a reply on Tastebuds – a much higher response rate than non-music based dating sites.” This definitely poses a potential problem to regular dating websites and they may have some tough competition if things work out well for this strategic partnership.
The future of social media and the music streaming industry is unpredictable; a good example of this is with MySpace. Will this trend eventually die out or can these companies keep changing with the times in order to differentiate themselves from other competing services in an already saturated marketplace? The answer to this question will depend upon companies like Spotify who are adding value to the everyday user in order to sustain interest in using the service.
