Our first E stands for events and when we brainstormed about visualizing the E, we came up with a visual equalizer that will react to music. For the interaction we came up with the idea of visitors choosing their favourite song.
We had quite some discussions with each other and teachers about the way of realizing this. Should we provide a phone or should the visitor connect their own device? We chose for the first option, we think this will be easier for the user and for us to program.
Then the next question, are we going to make a playlist or are the visitors free to choose every song they want? Because of the lack of wifi, we chose the playlist.
We also did some research about Spotify, are we actually allowed to use Spotify in the city centre? Spotify is only for personal use, not for commercial use. You can’t use it in your restaurant or company. But we didn’t really know if we would use it as personal or commercial, because we aren’t really a company. But we also aren’t just playing it at home, we’re in public. We didn’t decide what we were going to do yet, also because we don’t know what school allowed us to do. We asked the teachers, but they had different answers. Some teachers told us about last year, there were groups who did use music. But some teachers told us to we couldn’t use copyright music, so we should use copyright-free music. Or let the visitor connect their own Spotify, then it’s personal use. We thought again about letting the visitor connect their own device, but it was hard to realize. The teachers discussed together about if we are or are not allowed to use copyright music. And they decided that we are allowed, so we made a playlist and downloaded it on the phone we provided.
But we still wanted to see what it would have costed to use Spotify legally on the streets, assuming that it is commercial use.
In the Netherlands companies need to buy a double or combined license from Buma/Stemra and Sena to legally play music. Another option are spin-offs from Spotify, Spotify Business and Soundtrack Business. Spotify Business isn’t available in the Netherlands, so then you have to go with Soundtrack Business. The costs for using this platform is €26,99 per month.