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So, Like, How Does This Work?
One of the most frequent questions we get as we explain Fignotes to new users is, "how does this work?"
"Is it like Spotify?"
Yes
"You can upload your own music, is it like Soundcloud?"
Yes
Adam Grant, author of New York Times Bestselling book Originals, points out in his book that new ideas are best explained when they're connected with something familiar. How many times have you heard of a startup touting that "We'll be the Uber for [insert their idea here]?"
As the first Dynamic Music Streaming app, Fignotes merges the DIY, upload your own music of Soundcloud with the ease of streaming music made popular by companies like Spotify, along with the unique experiences we're all familiar with of live music. You've likely been at a live show where the artist on stage did something different, and in the moment it sounded amazing and you wish that the recorded version of the song that you've listened to hundreds of times incorporated that unique element. Now it can. An artist is no longer limited by the physical format. Once an Album is pressed or a CD is burned, the songs remain exactly the same. Fignotes unlimits an artists creative potential by allowing them to add as many different versions or renditions to their songs as they desire.
How Fignotes Works For Music Listeners
Our goal, first and foremost, is to ensure that our users have the most seamless and interactive user experience they've come to expect from other streaming service providers. It's important to note that the end user experience (the music listener), is no different than listening to a service like Spotify or Tidal.
Easy to use, simple, and intuitive are at our biggest goals when designing the User Interface and User Experience flow. You find a song through a search bar or through browsing through tagged songs (think of tags as a blend of Twitter Hashtags and Genre selections), push play, and listen to a unique experience specifically created just for you; only Fignotes can offer this experience.
Each listening experience contains a combination of master (original) song elements, derivative song elements, and solos, if the artists chooses to include any. Unlimited skips are available for all users, and all users will have the ability to engage with songs by "clapping" or "applauding", similar to liking posts on Facebook or other social media sites. This signals to artists that you like the section of the song that you clapped for, and can impact the frequency at which this song is streamed to passive listeners (Fignotes Radio) in the future. Listeners can save songs to their listening library and organize these songs into playlists, however, each time they replay a song they'll be presented with a unique version of the song.
Lastly, users will have the ability to share these unique versions of the songs with their friends via a custom song share link. Anybody, whether they're a registered Fignotes user or not, will be able to listen to the song and comment on that unique version. It's as simple as opening the link in your browser.
How Fignotes Works For Artists
Uploading songs to our platform is a seamless and streamlined process. From the artist perspective, uploading a song is no more difficult than uploading a song to a service like Youtube or Soundcloud. The one difference is that each song must have a master version (generally the original version of the recording) and a derivative version, which can include minor changes such as drum beats, lyrics, etc.
When the user streams your song, they'll be presented with a randomly generated version featuring a mixture of master and derivative elements. As such, it's always best to start with a master version and then make changes to it for the derivative, rather than starting from scratch for the derivative version, as the derivative will always need to be the same length and BPM as the master.
In order to provide the best possible experience for our listeners, we require that derivatives have the same length and BPM as the master version. Fignotes will do the rest to bring your new dynamic music to your audience. Artists and Songwriters are paid royalties for any and all works that are uploaded to the Fignotes service.
A long-term goal is to develop a network of creators (Sound engineers, producers, etc.) to help artists with creating derivative works of their songs. The artist and songwriter will still maintain full royalty payment status, but the creators will be incentivized to help get the artists music out there in new and creative ways.
Why Is Dynamic Music Streaming Better Than Traditional Music Streaming?
One of the best ways to compare the difference between Fignotes Dynamic Music Streaming and traditional streaming services is to picture yourself at a concert. It's likely that the songs you hear at a concert may sound slightly different than songs you hear on the album version (such as on Spotify, CD, Vinyl).
During a concert, an artist may add in a whole new guitar solo, or slightly change some lyrics, or add extra drum beats, to make the song sound unique for the live audience. In the past, a song has always existed as a static entity (never changing), but with Fignotes, for the first time, we open up the possibilities for each song to be a dynamic, living entity which can change as the artists themselves change.
The follow chart highlights the differences between traditional static streaming music and Fignotes dynamic streaming service.
The Fignotes team is currently hard at work in the process of building out our Web App for listeners, as well as to allow Artists to upload their master and derivatives (for free), and we will be launching an app for iPhone and Android in 2018. Fignotes is currently accepting beta signups to help us with testing and feedback on the app. Sign up by clicking the button below. We look forward to bringing a whole new era of Music streaming to life!
-Chris
