We all know that the music industry is in huge trouble. Their fight against the music “pirates” is only going to end in tears – they need to work on new strategies. Luckily, some of the players in the industry are starting to do just that.
One clever idea that caught my eye is a new game that is all about finding new music. It is the Music Pets app for Facebook, and the goal is to entertain a virtual pet by training it to like the music you like, then using points to send the pet out to find more music to add to your collection. The app has had just short of a million users sign up since launching in March 2010.
The idea is to replicate how we actually choose new music in the “real world”. We hear something we like, we listen to our friend’s music, we ask for recommendations. Then we try it out ourselves, build a collection, and finally start sharing it with our friends.
Read more about it in the Wired magazine here. Music is meant to be fun. It’s meant to be shared and enjoyed. Maybe the virtual world is how this can best be done in the future.
Now if we can just get some of the world’s governments to start understanding this, and the music industry to wake up, maybe they’d unban the app in the UK!