The xx Debut New Release To One Person, Watch It Spread Worldwide [GRAPHIC]

"Coexist," the second album from The xx, was released last week and is now available Stateside. But its debut public hearing began with a single listener on September 3rd via a web app that streamed the whole album while tracking the sharing and listening that ensued around the world. Inspired by a 9elements project, the experiment has been aptly described as "Mapping Viral Marketing as a Way of Viral Marketing."

Coexist by The xx was released by Young Turks, an imprint of XL Recordings. They still share office space with XL on which The xx's "X" was recently painted.

X Marks My Spot in the Viral Visualization

It's unclear how long the stream and viral visualization of Coexist will stay live so check it out while you can. It looks much better on the site than the above screengrab communicates.

When you first go the site, it shows a map and a timeline. If you give it your location an X appears on the map and becomes part of the spreading lines of movement that mark viral shares. You can adjust the timeline to see earlier phases of the progress of shares.

The web app was created in partnership with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It's said to be inspired by 9elements' "Live Is Beautiful" project:

"'Live is Beautiful' is a live visualization for the current activity of the picture sharing service img.ly. Each curve starts with the location of the visitor and ends with the location of the image the visitor is looking at."

The first listener was an unidentified individual in southeastern England. Marketer Ada Farrell described the process:

"It was actually quite slow at first–like watching puppies being born…For a moment, it seemed like the grand experiment might sputter out. Then, some big sites got a hold of it and it literally exploded just before midnight on Labor Day."

He also tied the site into the band's own growth:

"In this day and age, a lot of how bands interact with fans online is to reward them with something new and innovative…To get people excited. The xx were a word-of-mouth band, so we thought this was a way to go back to that sense of self-discovery and fans sharing of music. The visualizer paints that picture in stark detail."

I only have two minor criticisms of this project. They didn't give it a separate name from the album and they didn't make my X colorful like the album cover. But that's more a personal take than a professional criticism. Coexist, the web app, remains a nice example of using visualization to map viral marketing as a way of viral marketing.

More: XL Recordings Make History With Limited Releases Of Music They Think Is Great

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) blogs about music crowdfunding at Crowdfunding For Musicians (@CrowdfundingM). To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.