Aux Tunes
Aux was a music-sharing tool that allowed users to create joint playlists with their friends. Using proximity detection, users could join music rooms with those nearby, where a playlist would be created based on the tastes of everyone in the room. The music rooms were ideal for events where groups of people listen to music together, such as parties or study sessions.
Backstory
Music is ever-present in most of our lives, either at the forefront of an experience or in the background as a complement. This rings most true in college. Music is consistently present at parties, coffee shops, study rooms, and more. The importance of music to curating a vibe often made music selection a common point of friction among groups. With tastes varying widely, it was almost impossible to create a playlist that would leave everyone in a space satisfied. This is what led my cofounder and me to initially create an Aux, a tool designed to make selecting music for a group quick and easy.
Project Overview
Our goal was to enable groups to create instant playlists based on all members' preferences. The app would be able to detect who was nearby a user, and we wanted it to utilize existing user data on Spotify, preventing users from having to input extensive data about the specific genres and songs they liked.
Unique Factors / Challenges
The core challenges we faced were Team Building, Fundraising, and Growth.
Team Building
Given that this began as a passion project, my co-founder and I undertook most of the work required to build the MVP. That said, we needed help from others, especially with the platform's technical development and fleshing out the idea. We relied on external contractors and mentors to help us with this.
Fundraising
The need for external help with the project's technical development required us to raise funds from family and angel investors.
Growth
At the time, I was unfamiliar with growth strategies for finding test users and ultimately growing a user base. I relied on close friends and mutual connections as the core way to get feedback and our first users.
Achievements & Outcome
A complete mobile application titled "Aux" which utilized the Spotify API and device proximity-detection
50+ Users
End-to-End experience with Product Development
The foundation of the more ambitious and successful Dive Platform I later co-founded.
