By Jerell Tongson

On Tuesday, September 17th, a new image-based music streaming app called Moodsnap will make its debut on the iTunes app store. Using the expansive Spotify library and The Echo Nest’s data algorithms, Moodsnap allows users to listen to curated music stations based on collections of images.  Music selections are crowd sourced, collaboratively chosen and tailored to the tastes of individual users.  The target goal is an “instinct-driven experience designed for music fans who are overwhelmed by choice in today’s digital world.”

Recently named a “Notable Startup” by the SF Musictech Summit in 2013, we spoke Founder & CEO David Blutenthal in advance of the launch this week.

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SoundCtrl : Where did the idea for Moodsnap come from?

David Blutenthal: My team and I were inspired to capture those very human musical attributes in order to deliver a listening experience that makes a person feel known and understood. What’s missing from today’s music apps is the perfect balance between contextual relevance, trusted curation, and simplicity through intuitive design. Our mission with Moodsnap ™ is to deliver on all three.

Our idea to categorize music stations by images stemmed from psychological research on the power that visual imagery has on emotion and decision-making, coupled with implicit knowledge and what we saw in the music and photo app marketplaces as both lacking and trending. By displaying a spectrum of life’s emotions not in words, but in photographs, Moodsnap ™ allows users to FEEL what they want to hear, rather than search through exhaustive and often un-relatable text-based categories. This intuitive experience is designed for music fans who feel overwhelmed by choice in today’s digital world, providing more time to simply live in the moment.

SC : How do you envision people utilizing Moodsnap in their daily lives?

DB : At a fundamental level, we envision people utilizing Moodsnap in a very instinct-driven way, to quickly find music that resonates with them in a particular context or moment, which is another way to say, to match “how they feel or what they’re doing”. Say for example, you’re leaving the office at the end of a hard day. Maybe you want to listen to something that will make you feel better, or perhaps feel relaxed, or yet again maybe feel like sulking in your frustration for a little while. You need some tunes that empathize with that. That user would instinctively choose a photo that resonates at that moment. Maybe it’s a picture of someone chilling out on an idyllic beach drinking a beer, maybe it’s someone pulling their hair out with frustration. In just one tap, the tunes start flowing.

SC : Does the Moodsnap team initially form a foundation of “beach songs” or “starry night” that users can alter through their usage? What informs those decisions?

DB : When a new Moodsnap station is created, our internal team along with a small hand picked group of curators, creates the initial foundation of music for that station, drawing from a variety of genres. 30-40 songs or so. Since all of the music associated with each image is hand picked, we need to seed users with something so they can tap and play without repeating songs, or without hitting a dead end.

Our hope is that contributors quickly latch on and add a diverse array of music that fits that photograph in some way. The process is truly one of human curation at scale, which is then sorted programmatically by energy (using Echo Nest APIs), and finally filtered dynamically to our understanding of each listeners taste. Since subjectivity and personal taste on the music contributor side plays a great role here, the delivery algorithm for listening has to be on point.

SC : Has anything surprised you from beta testing?

DB : Most definitely. One is that people see different things in a photo based on their perspective, life experience, gender, or otherwise.  For example, we have this one Moodsnap station of a man in a gay pride parade. It’s bright, colorful and feels very celebratory.  Depending on a particular user’s life experience and knowledge of what a pride parade looks like, some see Brazilian Carnivale, some see Mardi Gras, some see a Pride Parade, while others just see the expression of happiness and joy that exudes from the man’s face.  Compared to other photos that are much more specific to a universal theme, and are less ambiguous, the music we’re seeing being contributed to the “parade” station mirrors that ambiguity…think of songs ranging form George Michael to Seu Jorge to Dr. John.

We decided to keep the station in there for the launch so we can learn more from people. Ultimately we’re learning what rules govern a great Moodsnap station so that people’s listening experiences match their expectations based on a shared perception.

SC : What led to your decisions to use the Echo Nest and Spotify API? Are there plans for expansion past premium Spotify users into other streaming platforms?

DB : Regarding Spotify ®, in addition to that we’re all huge fans and users of the platform, they provide developers with an amazing set of API tools, which allowed us in an agile manner to build this differentiated interactive experience, and under a low cost structure…. In terms of available market size, Spotify has a largest international market share of subscribers among the on-demand streaming services for which we could position Moodsnap as a free value-add.

[Also], it was important to us that Moodsnap support the artists whose music makes our app possible, and there is simply no way we could have built a legally sanctioned version of Moodsnap without leveraging a platform such a Spotify.

The Echo Nest is doing amazing things for the next generation of music consumption, discovery, and delivery products and services. They are truly mastering the art of big data music intelligence. Like Spotify, they provide developers (like us) access to non-commercial use APIs, allowing us to sort music intelligently based on a number of parameters. We view The Echo Nest as a long-term partner as we continue to scale and grow into revenue generating business.

On the expansion note, we see the whole picture concerning options and reasons to expand to other music and mobile platforms, but for now we’re taking things a step at a time.  It’s logical that upon early success, an Android version will soon follow, and we are also looking into creating a tangential “lite version”, which we could offer to a broader userbase, that would be limited in features but still offer the core of Moodsnap’s image-based and instinct-driven experience.

SC : There has been a recent surge of popularity behind image/video based apps – Instagram & Vine being the most prominent. How do you see Moodsnap mingling with these types of services? Do they compete or amplify each other?

DB: Excellent question. We see ourselves as a joint value-creating player in the photo-sharing ecosystem, that can leverage these apps’ distinctive competencies in order to co-mingle, and thus amplify the experiences for our respective users. We are open to discussing creative options that complement other services, whether through strategic partnerships, cross-promotional campaigns, or API integration, with goals to build economic and social value in our shared ecosystem.

SC : Down the line, how do you foresee monetizing Moodsnap?

DB: Our strategy is to take a validated learning approach toward minimizing product-market risk at each stage of the venture’s development in order to meet business goals. The first stage of Moodsnap’s business strategy is to ensure that users are adopting the product as a lifestyle enhancer and that we’re seeing increased traction based on inherent viral factors. Having a strong demand-pull is crucial. Monetization will be a result of reaching significant scale, and we have a roadmap for revenues to eventually come from both from B2B and B2C opportunities.

SC : If you could see any artist picking up Moodsnap, who would it be and why?

DB : We will all see soon but I feel up-and-coming artists particularly have a lot to gain by exposing new people to their music, based on the context they want those songs to be heard.  New York based singer/songwriter Amber Rubarth comes to mind. She has beautiful songs about heartache and the pangs of love lost, and others that feel profoundly intimate, cozy, and full of love. You’d have to really know her catalog to get that. Moodsnap will allow for artists like her to unearth deep cuts (lesser known tracks) that most people might not otherwise notice, but in context, they come alive and leave their mark on you. In my opinion, her song “In The Creases” would fit a Moodsnap station conveying the former set of heartbreak emotions, while a song like “Mirror” would aptly be attributed to the latter.

Watch the Moodsnap.fm Boston New Technology Presentation (2013) here

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