How Mobile Can Be Part of an Independent Label's Strategy: Interview with Ghostly International
Indie music label Ghostly International recently launched an iPhone app called "Discovery" that streams full songs from their catalog based on your mood. We spoke with Miguel Senquiz, Ghostly's Director of Strategy & Development, and Brian Hords, Founder & Executive Creative Director of o2 creative solutions, to hear more about the app and how mobile fits into Ghostly's overall strategy and vision for the future.
Miguel Senquiz, Director of Strategy & Development at Ghostly International
Apple’s iPhone app store has been around since last year. What was the tipping point that made you decide Ghostly needed an iPhone app?
Early in the process, we were collaborating with o2 on an unrelated project in which people would interact with music in a live setting. In the end, the idea ended up being shelved due to cost and timing. However, bits of it germinated with the o2 and Ghostly teams. Shortly thereafter, we realized we could accomplish much of what we had originally wanted to do, using the iPhone as a medium.
Explain how the Ghostly iPhone app fits into Ghostly’s overall distribution strategy. Do you push for distribution in as many places as possible, or is there a process of curation to where Ghostly chooses to distribute music?
Our goal is to reach as many interested individuals as possible with our music. However, there is definitely an element of curation in our decisions to ensure that we’re hitting the people who are most likely to be interested. The iPhone platform allowed us to offer a greater number of people access to our music with a very low barrier to entry (free). We’re taking advantage of the app store’s built-in audience; in a way, you could look at the app as an always-evolving, free sampler of great independent music.
How important is mobile to the future of independent music? Is it just one tool among many digital tools, or does it demand a unique strategy? Do you think it offers a playing field where smaller labels can compete with bigger ones?
Mobile is important to a company insofar as it enables them to offer something of value to the end user. To us, mobile is a communication channel with unique benefits, but we don’t see it as necessarily more important than other existing or yet-to-be-created channels.
There is an absolute need to strategize how to effectively utilize each of our communication channels. The content we provide for radio, and the way it’s consumed through that medium, is very different from how we communicate through video with YouTube and the like. We’re cognizant of how we consume media as individuals and therefore reflect that in our approach to each format.
Why did you decide to use mood- and style-based streaming?
For many people, their ability to hear and appreciate music is extremely dependent upon their awareness or knowledge of the artists and genres. We decided that contextualizing the listening experience through mood was one way to overcome that barrier, avoiding labeling the music or drawing specific comparisons and instead painting a much broader, more inclusive picture. Rather than relying on recognition or familiarity with an artist or sound, we’re inviting people to tell us how they feel in a very general way and curating sounds that support or reflect their response.
The curatorial aspect of how the app works is very important to us. We want people to think of Ghostly and the app as a very knowledgeable friend, to whom you can say “I’m happy and excited right now,” and they’ll suggest a song that perfectly fits your state of mind.
Are there any plans to extend Ghostly’s mobile efforts to other devices or operating systems like Android?
At this time, we’re focusing on the iPhone platform only. We haven’t ruled it out, but there are major benefits to Apples’s SDK and ecosystem that we’re intent on harnessing.
Brian Hords, Founder & Executive Creative Director at o2
As an experience design firm, how does o2 integrate, if at all, the mobile platform into its larger branding offering?
In the last year, mobile content has increased exponentially. The mobile platform extends the opportunity for brands to be more accessible in a rapidly growing market. For o2, we look at this in a variety of ways. We create mobile apps and strategies to extend dialog, further opportunities to take a brand along wherever you go and to provide a reciprocal experience that connects back to a brand’s core communication intent.
What was the central theme in designing this app?
The central theme for the Ghostly app was to keep the UI simple, inviting and intuitive. The overall focus was to discover music. It is, after all, called Discovery.
We would like to thank Miguel Senquiz, Brian Hords, and all the people at Ghostly International + 02 creative solutions for making this interview possible.
