In order to combat the growing popularity of music streaming services, like Spotify and Apple Music, music video platforms, like Vevo and YouTube, are working to develop their own social experience through social watching. The idea behind social watching is to allow users from various locations to simultaneously watch the same video across multiple devices, while sparking a conversation between the viewers. By incorporating key reactive features from some of the most popular social media sites, these music video platforms are looking to bring more traction and user engagement to their video libraries, well beyond the basic video search. Let’s take a look at how the top two video streaming services are incorporating this next wave technology:
Vevo Watch Party
Vevo, has recently announced its effort to create its own version of social watching with the launch its new feature, Watch Party. Watch Party will let users connect worldwide to tap into Vevo’s massive library of videos to chat and engage with one another. Users will be encouraged to create their own collaborative playlists to share with friends and will have two different modes to do so. The ‘Host Mode’ option occurs when one person controls the entire playlist while everyone else can just comment back and forth. ‘Collaboration Mode’ inspires more engagement by allowing any user that is invited to not only chat but also vote to see which video will play next. In addition to creating more interactivity on the Vevo platform, Watch Party was designed to help Vevo expand its presence and lower its dependency on YouTube for traffic. Watch Party will launch as a desktop-only feature later this month.
YouTube UpTime
YouTube is also looking to get into the social watching game with the introduction of the experimental app, UpTime. Similar to Vevo’s Watch Party, the app will enable users to simultaneously watch and engage with videos in real-time, however, UpTime will have a more youthful and lively design. The app will include similar reactive features that are available on Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope. For example, when a user watches a video, their profile picture will show up and their emoji reactions and comments will appear to everyone else that is watching. The app was designed for public sharing, not private messaging, so any comment or reaction you post will be available to anyone that views the video. UpTime does make this sentiment clear by asking for consent before you watch any video. The idea behind this public socializing is to make videos more discoverable with one large co-watching community. UpTime is currently in an invite-only mode, but keep an eye out for its public release.
The way we currently watch music videos is about to change, allowing content creators to get feedback and results in real time. In order to stand out, it is important to create content that people will be attracted to as this new technology develops. If you are wondering where to begin, check out our weekly blogs like Key Concepts that Encourage Video Sharing and How to Improve Your Video Quality- 6 Tips for more information about how to take advantage of an audience that more engaged than ever before.