Moodagent, a personalised music streaming service with innovative recommendation and discovery features launched in Australia on May 31st. The core idea of the service is that it puts the listener back in control and gives them a new way to discover artists, and artists new ways to reach fans.
Mediaweek spoke to Tom Mee, general manager of Moodagent Australia and New Zealand about how Moodagent works, the Australian music market, and partnering with Splendour in the Grass.
How It Works
While there are a number of music streaming services that use algorithms to suggest new music to listeners, Mee says that Moodagent goes about the process in a different way.
“A lot of music recommendations and discovery today in music streaming is based on statistical analysis. They’re looking at other users who look like you that might have a similar musical sense or might have similar listening habits, comparing you to them and then serving you up music that you might like. It’s really done through popularity and music editors.
“What Moodagent does slightly differently is it looks inside at the music instead of outside at the user base. The algorithm identifies all of these attributes, and then comes up with a musical profile of that particular song. That becomes the basis of how it matches other songs.
“We combine this AI machine learning with our music curated through our musicologists. They do create playlists and things like that, but they also train the machine learning algorithms to get better and better at giving recommendations. That’s how we come up with the unique playlists that you can interact with.”
Launching in Australia
Mee says that the decision to launch in Australia was in response to the ways that Australians use streaming services.
“Australia is such an exciting and diverse music market, and we think we can add value in this market. Music streaming is quite mature in Australia, it’s been around for close to 10 years, and we think there is definitely room for a service that differentiates itself and does focus more on providing a unique experience. It’s going beyond the core thesis of music streaming which has been access to all the world’s music and saying ‘how can we look at this differently?’
“Australians are very good at streaming music and understand the concept, so we thought they’d be really receptive to something new and something different, which is why we decided to launch here.”
What Do Australians Want?
The Australian music streaming market is made up of listeners with countless genres and musical tastes, but Mee says that some things apply to everyone.
“Access to all the music and playlisting and some suggestions, those are all very important to have, but given the musical landscape is so diverse here I think people really want control of their listening experience. They either want to lean into it more and go down the rabbit hole of discovering new music or find new acts that they can share with their friends. Or sometimes they just want to lean back and be taken on a musical journey.
“I think that works really well with the Australian music habits and tastes which are so varied. There’s so many different musical communities, the genres and styles that are represented in this multicultural country, it fits really well.”
Partnering With Splendour
This year, Moodagent has been named the exclusive streaming partner of Splendour in the Grass. Moodagent will have a big presence at the Sydney-based Splendour in the City event, something that Mee says he’s very excited about.
“We’ve been in discussion with the team over at Splendour for some time talking about how we can marry what we’re doing – which is really interesting in the music space – with what they’re doing. Obviously, they are the biggest festival but also one that creates the most diverse, interesting listener experiences and musical experiences that traverse art and culture. They were looking to do something very special and integrate technology into that and we’re a technology-first music company, so why don’t we partner up?”
Looking Forward
While it’s still very early days, Mee says that there are a number of things that Moodagent is hoping to achieve in the Australian market.
“What we’re looking to achieve is just to create a really great musical experience and find music fans that are looking for something new. We really want to give artists more choice as well – I think there’s a bit of an issue in music streaming where it really rewards a small number of creatives, so we would really like to put more artists on the map and give people more diverse listening experiences.
“Most of all we just really want to create and enjoyable customer experience and a premium music experience that resonates with people no matter what their mood, no matter what their emotion or what they’re doing. Just providing music as a companion really.”
Moodagent is now available from the mobile Apple App Store, Google Play and Huawei AppGallery. Users can also download the desktop version here.