The Growing Popularity of Personalised Music Playlists.

In 2022 there was a flurry of activity in the streamed music sector with new product launches from both Spotify and Apple. These leading players in the music streaming business have a new competing App called Instafest that is growing in popularity and allows users to curate their own dream music festival line-up.

Increasing personalisation and customisation of music content is in great demand and developers have been working hard to create Apps that achieve and improve this for listeners. Apple launched their ‘Replay’ service which enables listeners to see their top songs, artists, genres, albums and other data. Spotify launched ‘Wrapped’ which operates on a similar principle to Apple Music Replay and allows listeners review their listening habits from the past year, identifying their top artists and most-played songs. Spotify Wrapped can curate a personalised playlist of the top tracks which users then share to their social media channels. For music listeners keen on music festival curation the new App Instafest was launched in late 2022 and uses a similar principle but is targeted at users who want to curate their own dream music festival line-up. 

What is the Instafest App. 
Developed by Anshay Saboo, a student from the University of Southern California, the Instafest App uses data from user’s Spotify listening habits over the last four weeks, last six months or all time to create a fantasy music festival line-up. The fun element of this app is the creation of a personalised music festival poster image that can then be shared on social media channels. Initially launched to work with Spotify the App now works in a similar fashion with Last.fm and Apple Music data and is free to use. Recent Google data indicates that the Instafest App has grown quickly to over 16 million users.

Future Trends. 
As with most successful and popular Apps Instafest is a very simple tool that satisfies a festival-goer's desire to curate their own fantasy event. Perhaps they will build in more features over time but the current offering appears to satisfy a large number of users. Instafest may be seen as more relevant to music listeners by adding an element of fun and customisation that Spotify and Apple never really considered. The viral success of Instafest and its fast-growing popularity will surely drive new entrants to this market and for commercial organisations there will be monetisation opportunities too. Developers may be able to earn revenue by allowing sponsors to add logos, branding and links to a user’s personalised festival poster image. The poster image can be presented in a similar way to any real-life music festival poster which always includes the sponsor’s logos for example.

For real world festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Wendy Wei via Pexels

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