[ibimage==30583==Original==none==self==null]Despite a digital music renaissance spearheaded by other popular services like Spotify and Bandsintown, LuckyPennie's recent debut makes sense. Whether you rely on the internet hivemind or your real-life social circles for new music and concert discovery, there’s no unified platform that brings music enthusiasts together in a culture of exchange. Users are too spread out between many segregated networks.
LuckyPennie co-founders John Wolanin, Jonathan Lane and Joe Landon present their answer: a unified social experience for music sharing and discovery.
LuckyPennie empowers everyday music fans to become tastemakers in their local music communities, connecting like-minded people around geographically relevant streams of music, concerts and trends.
The app lets you create local “crews” and “fan” influential users whose tastes you trust, while earning “cred” for curating unique content sourced from various media networks and services. Trending, nearby activity is presented to you in a real-time feed via an algorithmic reputation system.
In the future, the LuckyPennie team could use “cred” to incentivize and reward quality participation, but plans are under wraps for now. So far, they’ve rolled out a few exciting, exclusive collaborations with artists such as Mayer Hawthorne, Plain White T's and Toni Braxton.
“Although services such as Spotify, iTunes and Songkick have amassed enormous libraries of music and concert information, the most reliable form of discovery is still word of mouth from people you trust,” Lane said. “LuckyPennie amplifies your voice and provides that human touch that you can't find anywhere else.”
LuckyPennie strives to bridge the expanses between mobile media usage, social networking and live music events. In a way, LuckyPennie gives due justice and a captive audience to the labor of love that is music curation.
Conceptually, the app has some humorous underpinnings. It was adapted from a facetious idea to connect touring musicians with potential groupies. The name “LuckyPennie” is a play on words, saluting rock and roll’s original muse and (purported) groupie, Pennie Lane. (Pennie is rumored to be the main inspiration for Kate Hudson’s character in Almost Famous.) Clearly a joke, the original idea was swiftly put to bed. The name and the desire to enhance the fan experience, however, stuck.
“We quickly realized that was a silly idea but it did raise the bigger question: ‘What does it mean to be a passionate fan?'” Lane said. “We built this app around the central theme that connecting people through music is often more important than the music itself. With this as our foundation, it has led us to develop a more compelling social experience than our competitors.”
The three co-founders, who have a combined 30 years of experience in the music industry and have each been in bands themselves, blended their strengths to take on the big vision of creating LuckyPennie.
Wolanin has led UI/UX design and provided creative direction for dozens of brands including numerous Y-Combinator backed startups. Lane is a serial entrepreneur with extensive music industry business development experience and also a former co-founder of the NextSpace coworking space in LA. Landon, who has built multiple award-winning mobile apps, was the lead mobile developer at Break Media (now part of Defy Media).
Launched in January 2013 and currently available on iOS, LuckyPennie was quickly featured as Best New App in the App Store by just its second month. The co-founders are gearing up to raise an official seed round after further proofing in the market. Meanwhile, fans everywhere are cheering as LuckyPennie continues to streamline the camaraderie behind the music experience. Because, lest we forget, it is an experience after all.
