ListenUp.fm: Turning Streaming Platforms Into A Music Marketing Tool

With
more people streaming music online, many companies have developed
products, services, and apps to enhance the listening experience. Apps
like “We Are Hunted” and “Soundrop” help fans discover music and have
certainly helped in bringing more features to Spotify. One company,
ListenUp.fm, seeks to help artists earn more revenue by utilizing
streaming music platforms to more effectively promote concerts and
capture the attention of fans.

Created in Nashville, ListenUp.fm is a music loyalty rewards platform for fans that stream
music online using services like Spotify or Rdio. Fans earn points for
listening to music, sharing music, and purchasing concert tickets or
merchandise. These points allow them to unlock exclusive artist rewards
such as backstage passes or limited edition merchandise. In addition,
ListenUp.fm promotes concerts based on a user’s music listening history.

ListenUp.fm cofounders, Mykas Degesys and Ben Fruin, met and came up
with the idea while attending business school in Nashville.

The
app gathers individual listening data across streaming platforms and
promotes shows to the fans that are listening to an artist’s music. The
company currently tracks data for fans who use Spotify and Rdio and will
soon be expanding to other platforms .

How ListenUp.fm Works

When a user
signs into ListenUp.fm, he or she accesses a personalized web page
displaying information about his or her favorite artists.

The
system targets fans that have identified themselves as “interested”
based on their listens, shares, and spending. The goal is to get more
fans attending more concerts by increasing awareness for the tours of
artists that fans are interested in. In addition, ListenUp.fm has
created a unique channel to reward a band’s most loyal and active fans
based on natural behaviors, not incentivized ones. Artists get to see
who the true fans are, not just the ones who are motivated by tasks and
rewards. Fans that buy tickets to a show will rank higher than fans that
only listen to or share music.

The app also provides musicians with a
dashboard of information to help them better understand their fans and
ultimately increase sales. Musicians can see valuable information like
how many new fans they have added each week, top influencers and
spenders, and where their fans are located.

According
to ListenUp.fm,

"To the fan, we are a music loyalty rewards platform
for those that use streaming music services like Spotify. In addition,
our technology identifies and notifies fans about the concerts they
would like to go to. On the artist side, we are a marketing platform
that targets fans at their heightened moments of interest.”

The company
rewards fans and helps artists by creating a better connection between
musicians and fans.

ListenUp.fm is currently in beta. To sign up via Facebook, go to http://listenup.fm/.

Currently, ListenUp.fm has two employees located in San Francisco: Ryan
Davidson (Back End Developer) and Vytas Degesys, Front-End Developer
along with CEO, Mykas Degesys, and CMO, Benjamin Fruin, in Nashville.
The company has some impressive advisors on board from the music and
tech industries including: Joe Galante, Mathew Hawn, and Kevin Ross.

For
more information about ListenUp.fm, check out http://listenup.fm/ and their blog: http://listenupfm.wordpress.com/.

Hypebot contributor Natalie Cheng (@ncswim881) is also the MusicThinkTank
Community Manager. She is currently an MBA student attending Belmont
University and interested in digital marketing, social media, and
technology. (http://about.me/natalie.cheng88)

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