Ever had that feeling at a music joint where you wished you could shout your favourite song to be played next but never had the guts to do it? Have no worries.
Coming to a music venue near you is Muze. The first-of-its-kind application that allows a venue to host a playlist and lets customers vote for their favourite song, Muze was the creative child of Chennai-based technologist Ganesh Jayaprakash and his investment banker brother, Kalyan Jayaprakash.
“It was all about giving the power back to the people to choose the songs they want to listen to,” says Ganesh. Teaming up with their digital marketer cousins Surej Salim and Manish Kishore, they launched the app at Bangalore’s Big Pitcher recently. “It went smooth and we got a good response from Bangalore’s music lovers.”
On what inspired the idea, Ganesh recalls that it was the difference in his taste for music and his brother’s taste. “Kalyan was into jazz so he wanted to start a jazz music bar in Chennai. My interests are all kinds of music so we couldn’t come to a conclusion on what kind of music bar it should be. During the discussion we thought why not start something in which, depending on demography, people can decide on what music they could listen to.”
He liked the idea and checked what software to install and none were available. So we decided to build one. That’s how it started. He did not start the bar and instead invested the money on creating the app.”
He further says that idea was to find venues which are really keen to give their customers the music experience they seek and allow them to influence music in their venue — either on a playlist or with a DJ or a live artiste.
“The venue will host the software which people can access at the place in a particular time slot and choose the song they want. It becomes diplomatic since the song with the most votes is played. So it becomes an organic playlist. Suppose it’s a DJ or a live band, they also put out a list of their songs and allow the people to decide which order and what songs to play.”
Looking ahead, Ganesh says the app is all about music and that will never change. “Apart from allowing people to influence music, we want them to collaborate as well. So we hope like-minded people socialise through the app. We will put up a sound wall where people with similar tastes can post and share experiences.
That will give a social angle to Muse. People can soon also interact with the DJ and artiste who can give their feedback directly to the customer as well. So this integration with the social media network is the next step for the app.”
The technologist adds that they are not just looking at venues to play host to Muze, but also gyms and coffee joints among other places. “Any place that plays music should have Muze and give the people there power to choose their favourite songs. We are already running one hour everyday on a radio station in Chennai where they use Muse to influence music played on the station. This will hopefully come to Bangalore as well.”
The Muse application is available on Android and IOS app stores.
