We couldn’t incentivize people to vote, but we could incentivize them to go to the polls.

So we created Election FM, a mobile music site that launched never-before-heard music on Election Day. But it worked only if you were near a polling booth.

Users simply went to ElectionFM.com and typed in their addresses. Then the GPS in their phones guided them to their assigned polling stations, step by step. Once users were within 300 feet of the polls, the music was automatically unlocked on their phones.

To hear the exclusive music, potential voters went to ElectionFM.com and typed in their addresses. Then the GPS in their phones guided them to their assigned polling stations, step by step. Once users were within 300 feet of their polling places, the music was automatically unlocked to stream on their phones.

We worked directly with Google Maps to geotag every polling station in the country, 100,000 in all, so the site worked for any US address. All they had to do was stay within the listening radius to hear all the songs. If they left the area, the music stopped.

The site became active when the polls opened on Election Day, November 8, 2016, and shut down once the polls closed, creating a one-day-only music event streaming at approximately 100,000 polling locations.

Election FM received national coverage from news and music outlets, including NBC, Billboard magazine, Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, Contagious Magazine, the Drum, Trend Hunter, Campaign, HLN, DIY magazine and Yahoo! News, and it garnered two separate stories in the Los Angeles Times.

And Rock the Vote has reported that 50 percent of youth, ages 18–29, voted in 2016—an increase of almost 5 percent from the 2012 election.