It’s one thing to stream curated playlists on Songza.
It’s quite another to hear insights about the music app from an insider.
Name: Eric Davich (@EricSongza)
Position: Co-Founder & Chief Content Officer
Education: Music, Bowdoin College
Favourite app, other than your own: Waze
Favourite band: Phish
Favourite Songza playlist: That varies based on my context – where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m feeling. A playlist that I discovered recently and played on my way to work is called Sensitive Men of the ’90s.
Professional role model(s): We have a lot of mentors and advisors that are really close to the Songza family. My dad has been a very hard worker and has a very entrepreneurial creative spirit. He’s responsible for my love of music. He’s been incredibly supportive as a father and as a mentor my whole life.
What excites you about working at Songza?
We’re a very small tight-knit team here. Everyone’s got their own quirky personality and is very excited to be working on this product. It’s a real pleasure and honour to work with the Songza team, who are in many cases smarter than me [laughs]. I’m privileged to learn a lot from [them].
What is the culture like at Songza’s headquarters in New York?
We’re a quirky and weird bunch. Our office space is bare bones. We’re not one of those start-up companies that buy lots of expensive furniture or goes into the cool, hip area of town where all the other start-ups are. We’re in our own little place, away from the action, so we can keep our heads down and stay focused.
Why should music lovers download and listen to Songza?
Songza—more than any other service by a mile—is effortless to use. Without you having to give us any information, we’re able to accurately predict what you are doing and feeling and recommend expertly curated content that’s going to make that moment better. No other service is able to deliver that experience for free nor do they have the personality.
How would you describe Songza’s personality?
Songza feels like your much cooler friend who always knows the right thing for every moment.
You’ve previously described Songza as a “lifestyle enhancer.” How has your lifestyle changed since Songza launched?
My life has changed immensely since launching the Songza business because everyone that I know now uses something I’ve created in their daily lives. In addition, I’ve been able to garner the attention and respect of a lot more people in the music and technology industry, as well as celebrities who now use Songza on a regular basis.
In terms of how Songza as an application has enhanced my life, I listen to a lot more music than I ever could have imagined. New moments in my life have been identified as moments that could use a soundtrack.
If Songza could partner with any brand(s), which brand(s) would you pick?
We would be most excited about working with Nike and Lululemon. Both are really great brands that started as athletic wear brands and have established themselves as lifestyle brands. People think of Lululemon and Nike as brands that are great at curating for their life, not just yoga and running. Their clothing and apparel is for athletics and fashion. I think both companies do a really great job at listening to their consumers and serving them with things that will make their life better. That’s very much in line with what we’re trying to do at Songza. Working with brands like that would add value to the user experience on our service.
“I gave a talk at the GRAMMY Connect conference. That was a pretty cool personal achievement.”
How does Songza make money through advertising without irritating users?
We have always set out to work with advertisers in a way that enhances the user experience instead of interrupts it. We’ve developed a native advertising platform that we call Sponsored Moments. Instead of selling brands audio advertisements that interrupt you while you’re listening to a playlist, we work with them to create custom content that’s integrated into the Songza experience.
Recently we worked with WestJet around the holidays on a moment in the music concierge, which we called a Vacation Escape with WestJet. When people click through there, they’ve opted into a WestJet branded experience. WestJet’s advertisements are coupled with these playlists. You’ll see banner advertisements for WestJet throughout the experience. The goal is making the brand part of the content users are consuming and showing them that they have the consumers’ life and things that matter to them in mind.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who want to develop an app?
The thing that’s helped us along the way has been immersing ourselves in the lives of our consumers by talking to people on a regular basis in a conversational way. Question your own assumptions, question the status quo and really understand the pain points and needs of your audience so that you can find out how you can fit into their lives and make it better.
Why did you decide to open a Canadian office?
We thought it was very important to have advocates for our Canadian users and Songza in Canada to stay on people’s radars, remind people of ways they can leverage the Songza platform, and help scale everything that we’re doing in the United States with a distinct Canadian flavour. We opened in Canada a little over a year ago and we’ve had some amazing traction.
What have you learned since expanding to Canada?
We realized that there are a lot of cultural differences between the United States and Canada. We need to do a better job of curating for Canadians, so we’re concentrating on creating Canadian-specific content.
How are Canadian listeners different from American listeners?
I think Canadians are very supportive of Canadian artists. They really like to champion artists that are from Canada (not that American artists don’t like to champion American artists, but I think Canadians are more enthusiastic about their artists).
The other difference is the types of situations and contexts that we need to curate for in Canada. It’s very important for Canadians to have music for Hockey Night, but not so much for Americans; same thing for going to the cottage and holidays. In Quebec, they speak French, so we’ve made it a priority to start curating more Quebecois playlists for our friends in Quebec.
The concierge feature is integral to Songza. If you had a personal concierge, what would you ask them to do for you?
I think it would be to recommend restaurants and meeting places. For instance, if I am going to meet you in Toronto next Wednesday, how would I know where to tell you to meet me? If I had a concierge in my pocket who was an expert on all the best places to meet—restaurants, coffee shops etc., he could say ‘hey, based on your preferences, your context and who you’re meeting, here’s a great place for your meeting.’ Who’s to say that Songza can’t do that for you in the future?
