Interaction - Bachelor
Meloplaza is a social music discovery platform designed with the purpose of decentralising algorithms and allowing users to connect and explore music in a meaningful way.
The website allows users to recommend music, view others' recommendations and save them to a collection, among other playful interactions.
As you’re probably aware, algorithms are becoming more and more prevalent in digital music streaming platforms. While convenient to an extent, they tend to trap us in a feedback loop of what we’re comfortable listening to, and never really give us a chance to expand our horizons.
This led me to pursue the design brief:
“How might we decentralize algorithms in music discovery and encourage social connections through a digital platform?”
The result of this was Meloplaza, a website which completely decentralises algorithms by focusing on listeners themselves and the stories behind their favourite songs.
Users create an avatar called a “melo”, and recommend music in response to a provided or custom prompt, along with a personal message. This message is what sets the recommendation apart from what an algorithm could provide — a peek into someone else’s life that allows you to appreciate the music better.
Every user’s melo gathers in a plaza where everyone can view each other’s recommendations and add them to their collection, if they’d like. The latest five songs from your collection are curated into a receipt “playlist”. You can print this out or keep a digital copy of it as a record of your discoveries.
Users can come back to their account and update their recommendation at any time, so there’s always new discoveries to be had. They can also create rooms for a certain niche or genre to find other listeners who enjoy the same music and have similar songs to share.
Fourth-year Computer Science and Interaction Design student, passionate about music and games. Striving to design web experiences that are playful, dynamic and solve real problems.
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