Highway 61 : Connecting music to your world.
HWY61 was a platform for “Americana fans Who Want good curated Americana related media in one place HWY61 Is a your gateway to all things Americana”
Highway 61 was a location aware mobile application that tells travelers of interesting locations when they are near. The application uses over 900 geospatial audio points and a streaming radio station to give users a unique view into the origins of the music that shaped the United States.
It featured a well curated set of local radio stations, podcasts, and soundpoints. These soundpoints were “Points of Interests” with a geographic position and an audio clip. When a traveler came close to a soundpoint they were notified and could learn the history behind the music they loved. Unlike Satellite xm radio, HWY61 has stations of local music so you experience the authentic music of the area
HWY61 was unique in how it connects where you live to the music that was created there. For example, down the street from where I live I learned that there had been a recording studio that Nirvana had recorded in. Knowing these local facts connects you to the artist through location.
HWY61 tested well with people who traveled and loved podcasts. It gave them a reason to drive out of their way to see something new and broaden their musical knowledge.
Action: Turing a idea into product
Working on behalf of Indie Global, I was involved at every stage of the production of HWY61. The first step was to conduct market studies, business analysis, and user testing in what the product could be. This involved working with the visionary to put together a budget and a team for defining and growing the product.
Once the initial business analysis was conducted we moved into defining the product from a user interface perspective and then created a prototype using ionic to create both an Android and iOS version. The server backend was created using node.js and running it on Heroku with the nosql database MongoDB. The prototype was then launched in conjunction with a streaming radio station that played Americana style music. The resulting MVP was used to test the market and refine the experience.
Results:
What was learned was that more personalized soundpoints were more successful and interesting for users. This opened up a need for producing a set of high quality soundpoints. I organized and ran a production team to research and collect these soundpoints and resulted in a set of 300 that could be used to grow the HWY61 audience.
For a well defined cost the visionary was able to bring his dream to life. I assembled the teams that were needed and to move the product forward along each step. The project was kept within budget and every aspect of the product was communicated. The resulting system provided a novel way to bring music and location together. This lined the product up so that it could be funded further and scaled up.