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When Zach Walker and his friends saw new developments in music — songs, albums, news — they’d email their findings and thoughts to each other.
But as friends of friends, and those friends of friends’ friends, began to show interest in this micronetwork, Walker realized something. It wasn’t just his social circle that was in search of opportunities to have an in-depth discussion about mutual interests in music; it was nearly everyone around him. And conventional channels – whether streaming services, social media, or email – weren’t going to suffice.
“We had a lot of questions for the community here but couldn’t figure out where to go to get answers,” he said. “A question as simple as ‘What is camping like at an Insomniac festival?’ would fall on deaf ears through the traditional forms of social media. This is when we knew that in order to facilitate the music discussion we had come to value, and get answers to the questions we've always wanted to ask, we had to create that place.”
That place became illumie. The self-described “Reddit and Quora lovechild for the music industry,” illumie is a sharing and discussion platform for music enthusiasts.
Once an illumie user creates an account, she can set her musical preferences, follow artists, and connect with friends, at which point illumie generates a personal feed for her. As in a subreddit or Quora thread, she can ask and answer questions and opine on releases, news, and events, and respond to others’ entries. Though the operations sound orthodox, Walker asserts that because illumie targets relatively small communities with subsets of a common interest, it offers users a more relevant experience.
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“The difference between us and other social networks is that you won't find your grandma commenting on your posts, you can communicate in more than 140 characters, and it doesn't look like our site was made in 1995,” he said.
Walker positions illumie as a means of full-bodied digital discussion, a targeted platform for people eager to have their voice heard. His goal is to offer an antidote to the closed nature and low visibility of email and blogs, the lack of platforms for discussion on streaming services like Spotfiy and Rdio, and the conversational brevity of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, the latter of which is notorious for its 140-character limit.
Currently in early beta (and operating on an invite-only basis), the bootstrapped, five-employee company plans to introduce its product this spring.
In the meantime, Walker and company are refining features, incorporating user feedback, and preparing for launch.
“Our immediate focus is on the upcoming spring launch and creating the best user experience possible. In the end, illumie is a democracy that will be governed by our fans and their needs. As for the distant future, once the smoke clears, the illumie chest is filled with wonders,” Walker mused.
