By adaptive - August 17th, 2015

London-based MSTY is trying to strike a chord with people, touting a first of its kind music messaging service. MSTY claims to have agreements with the major music labels and has launched its free app on iOS and Android mobile devices in 127 countries.

MSTY allows users to send personalized messages from a smartphone app to friends by selecting songs categorized by moods, genre, trending and the MSTY Hot 30. Then you can select a stock picture or a photo from your phone and type in a short note. Lastly it allows you to preview the MSTY message’s music, spelling, visual, and emotional appeal before sending.

Messaging and social sharing apps are proliferating as entrepreneurs try to lock in users with unique functionality, whether it be swapping pictures, disappearing messages, or video clips. And research shows retention for messenger apps is higher than for other apps, all competing for prime smartphone space and your shriveling spare time. 

MSTY founder and CEO Grant Bovey sat down with Open Mobile’s Robert Gray and discussed the nascent service.

OMM: What’s the value proposition for MSTY?
Bovey:
The app spontaneously changes your mood in a heartbeat. If I send you a text there’s nothing of value. With music I am sending you something and it has value. This is a messaging service but it’s harnessing the huge emotional power of a world famous song.

OMM: Was it easy to win over the major music labels?
Bovey:
The record labels have allowed us to curate 30-second bits of a song. That was of paramount importance to me. I didn’t want to send the whole song, that’s not the business we’re in. But some songs, the message I want to send didn’t start until 90 seconds in. The preview clips on iTunes didn’t work, the vast majority are chosen by computer and not hand-curated.
There was resistance to us choosing the 30 seconds but eventually the labels agreed.

OMM: Music famously transports people through space and time when there are strong memories associated with a song (a phenomenon known as music-evoked autobiographical memories). But can that be done with 30-second clips and a picture on your phone?
Bovey:
People like to rekindle that moment in their life when they got the MSTY and they like to go back and see it.
My favorite record is ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong. I was having a bad day and my daughter sent me a MSTY with her picture on it and this song with the message, ‘Dad, don’t worry’. That immediately made me feel better.

OMM: MSTY’s main use is for sending pictures with brief text and a music soundtrack to evoke emotions, so why did you include a basic text function for SMSs?
Bovey:
We really see MSTY becoming a messaging tool and we didn’t want people to come out (of MSTY) to WhatsApp to send a text…approximately 35 percent (of MSTYs during beta testing) are text messages. So people are adopting it for messaging, full stop.

OMM: How are you going to monetize the service?
Bovey:
There are no immediate plans for monetization. We’ll see what happens, there are opportunities for sponsorship. And there’s a link to Apple Music that pays us a referral fee.
I’m not at liberty to discuss the contractual terms with the music labels, but it’s completely free for the consumer. We have enough resources to launch and take this into the future.
That was a challenge, to make this completely free.

OMM: Given the strong ties between music and emotions, and the current disruption in the music business, are there other business applications for this app?
Bovey:
There’s the potential for MSTY to be a music platform. We could launch new bands.

For all the latest mobile trends, check out The Open Mobile Summit 2015 on November, 9-10, San Francisco 

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