Do you think you have an ear for the next top signing talent? Want to make an impact in someone’s singing career without giving up your day job? Sure, you could tune into an episode of American Idol. But in all 13 years of its history, the show has remained a relatively passive viewing experience. The most that you can do as a viewer is be one of the millions of people who text in their preference for the week. On top of that, the TV judges still have the ultimate say as to who moves on to the next round. Your opinion should matter more.
There is another pain point from the potential contestants point of view. The chances of making it on American Idol or The Voice are pretty low. Not to mention the travel time to auditions, waiting in line for hours, and somehow hoping to stand out in a stadium full of people. It seems like your next best option is to post a few singing videos online and send them out to your friends but with over 300 hours of videos being uploaded to YouTube every minute, it’s hard to get noticed. However, all this is changed with Chosen.fm, a newly released app that empowers users to interact and engage with the performing arts in a powerful, new way.
The Chosen.fm platform enables users to upload singing, karaoke, or lip syncing videos that are guaranteed to be noticed. These users are the performers. In the gameplay aspect of the app, this video is delivered to another user, the judge, along with performances from two other singers, and the judge picks their favorite. Performers are then ranked on the leadership board based on their video’s performance. In addition, experience points are built up to represent the journey you’ve taken through Chosen. You can gain experience points through gameplay, uploading performances, or reviewing videos.
Download Analytics
Chosen wanted to make sure their growth strategy was up and running for their soft-launch this week. According to KissMetrics, neglecting user engagement and retention is one of the post-launch pitfalls of many apps these days. To account for this, Chosen integrated Branch links as part of their growth strategy to help improve and measure launch statistics. Upon clicking (and installing the app if they are new to Chosen), a user is taken right into gameplay that includes the shared video content that attracted them in the first place. According to the Chosen team, “Branch deep links enable us to give users an amazing, near-seamless experience when they click on Chosen content that friends have shared via social media.” By deep linking through install , they are able to provide users with an interactive initial experience and measure the direct value of their sharing campaign.
Chosen is one of our many partners that utilizes Branch’s smart sharing features. Our overshare kit system can be implemented in a few steps and allows you to see powerful insights into your users, provide personalized installs, and track marketing links and paid campaigns. For Chosen, they described this to mean that “users aren’t just sharing a video, per se, they’re sharing their entire experience with that video on Chosen.” Chosen has spent the past pre-launch months designing an interactive and engaging experience for users interested in the performing arts. By partnering with Branch, they are able to ensure that first time users will be brought directly to this experience, not some standard welcome screen.
As described in Code Magazine , “To make beautiful software, you have to play with beautiful software.” Developers spend so much of their time designing and fine tuning the user experience of their app. They play with their app over and over, A/B test various features, or pay thousands of dollars for a design consultant before launching or pushing a new update. However, they often ignore the process required to get new users to that awesome experience. Branch allows you to pass contextual referring data through app stores so you can bring users directly to the bread and butter of your app.
Chosen selected to implement Branch links before the launch of their app because they understand the importance of the early growth of their platform. Initial growth in the first few days after launch is vital for growing the community of singers and judges that bring value to the app. By partnering with Branch, they are confident that all new users will immediately see this value. Chosen comments, “Because of the experience we can deliver to our users and the analytics that come with it, the team is super excited and committed to working with Branch and integrating their technology as a key aspect of Chosen’s viral strategy.” If you’re interested in implementing Branch before the launch of your app, our docs page is a great place to start.
As for me, I may love food , or enjoy exploring new places to hike , but I have the singing voice of a drunk monkey. Although you won’t see any performances from me I’ll be using Chosen.fm to hear some upcoming new talent. So listen up Simon Cowell, the next big hit is coming through me!