Final Project Essay
As a musician, naturally, I gravitated towards an idea that has to do with music and performance. Growing up watching every music award show and going to every concert I could afford tickets to, I started to notice that they’re all either copies of each other, or ingenue, or both. With the rise of social media, musicians have had a closer relationship with their followers, paying attention to what their fans want to see them perform and what the response to their music is. One day, I was looking at the setlist for a concert that I bought tickets to, just to find out that half of it was old music instead of music from the album being promoted. I’ve also been to concerts that could’ve had a lot of potential to be fantastic, but fell short because of the content or lack thereof. I’ve also grown tired of seeing the same pop stars belt out the same songs at every award show. Nothing against Ariana Grande, but hearing her latest single be unenthusiastically performed without enunciation 100 times has gotten very old. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be able to control these situations. That’s when my idea was born.
My idea is for a music service that merges society’s obsession with the internet with live performance. The name for my idea is Horan. It is named after one of my favorite musicians. It’s a service to help create the musical content that people want instead of experiencing the same thing over and over again. The main idea behind this is to have people use their love of social media to pick and choose what happens during live performances and music-based award shows. For example, instead of the overplayed song of the year being performed at every award show, people can go on this service and choose another artist’s single that they want to hear performed that was snubbed by award shows. For example, ‘Closer’ by The Chainsmokers and Halsey would be performed at the VMAs or Grammys to play up the popularity; however, it would have to be chosen by fans to be performed at another one and, if it was. people could choose how the performance would be different. According to an article titled ‘The Future of the Music Industry,’ touring is the top resource bringing in money for music executives. With my service, fans can help create unique tours for artists they love, preventing the redundancy that comes with a lot of popular artists’ tours. They can help artists choose setlists, guests for special shows, and ways for the artist to interact with the fans to make the concert more intimate, even if the crowd is 60,000 strong. This would be possible through artists sharing their ideas on the service and having their fans voice their opinions on what should stay and what should go. There would also be a section where organizations put out a list of all of the nominees in the music performance categories, and having fans share the ones they want to see perform. This helps promote musical diversity. I also would want to expand the service to include virtual reality. According to ‘The Music Industry in 2026,’ virtual reality will be a music outlet. For someone like me, who loves going to concerts but gets nervous in big crowds, this would be helpful. With Horan, all you would have to do is pay the normal ticket price and put on the VR device. From there, you would be transported to the actual concert without the hassle of dealing with sweaty people, frustrating traffic, and insane snack prices. However, this would only be encouraged for use by people who have anxiety and people who live nowhere near the venue an artist is playing at. Mainly, it’s like a radio show playing their most requested songs, except online and with every aspect of performance.
I was inspired to create this service after I saw what was being done at Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour and Twitter’s polling system. As far as the tour goes, everybody who attended Taylor Swift’s concert would get a bracelet that was programmed to light up certain colors during specific times throughout the performance. This created a unique experience that made every fan even more excited to attend, because it helped them be a part of the show. She would also bring out surprise musical guests during shows in major cities. This would give fans the opportunity to see their dream collaborations happen and give them an experience that was different from others who attended similar shows, or even the same tour. With Horan, fans could help decide on things like this to help make shows more unique. One Direction used to answer Twitter questions from fans in attendance to create a more intimate experience. My service would help fans be able to create a section in an artist’s show that’s just dedicated to helping them connect more to the fans in attendance.
My target audience is mostly people who value performance quality and expression through music. However, everybody would be welcome to use this service because music is for everybody. I would want to target people who love to use social media to express every opinion they have, but that would not be made public. The only limitation presented would be an age restriction. Since my service would be open to fans of all kinds of music, there would be content that is usually labeled on iTunes or YouTube as explicit. Therefore, I would require a minimum age of either 16 or 18.
I would make my idea popular by starting with indie artists and working my way up. There are popular musicians who pay attention to what is happening with lesser known musicians. Therefore, they would find out about this service in this way. With the right celebrity attention, this service would be a success. I would also use social media to my advantage. With all of these social media platforms that are out today, I would have several ways to get my idea out into the open. I would target Facebook friends who update their statuses a lot during award shows, and friends who post a lot of photos of themselves at concerts.
What makes my project stand out is the integration of the digital world with the real world. It also tackles the issue of the album losing value because of music streaming. In order for people to decide which songs they want to see artists perform, they need to know all of the songs on the album that is being promoted. It also gets around the idea of copyright. Many YouTubers get in trouble for reacting to new music because of copyright issues. With my idea, they can still express how they feel about it without getting hit with a strike that can potentially have their account suspended. It’s also an idea that can implemented immediately, unlike other ideas that would take several years to be possible. It’s also unique because it helps fight the idea that other genres of music need their own award shows and concert specials to have a performance outlet. With my service, all genres will be celebrated and encouraged to be chosen.
The level of success of my service would be based on who uses it. I have an idea that subdivision record companies and organizations that run the low-tier award shows (such as the AMAs and Billboard Music Awards) would utilize my idea to draw more attention to their companies. I would also base it on individual artist uses. Once the service was used by the likes of Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, I would say that my idea would be at peak success. I would need to measure the success over a long period of time, because change takes time. Overall, the success would come with seeing more digital ways of entertaining audiences being used in live performances. It would also come with seeing more variety in live performances due to the sharing of music and musical opinion on my service.
I truly believe this service should be executed. People love feeling like their opinions are valued and like they’re being heard. This would help with that. People want music events to stop being so exclusive to certain people, or being considerate of what fans want, but in small doses. This would also help force music executives into giving up their insane control of artists. I would also enjoy watching companies get mad over not being able to shut down expression because of copyright. There have been instances where people buy tickets just to see an opening act, because that opening act hasn’t been given a fair chance. This service will help fight that. My main focuses are to ease the transition from physical to completely digital and to give people a unique online outlet for expression. Horan could help make the music industry exciting again.
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