In order to eradicate the randomness of tracks on playlists we invented MixShape, rendering the useless shuffle and skip buttons. MixShape is a new digital tool that succinctly orders your playlists, so your tracks flow perfectly whatever the occasion.

This technology was invented for Internet Explorer so they could show off their multi-touch capabilities and rapid graphic rendering. We partnered with Spotify and used their API to provide us with meta-data about individual tracks in any given playlist. We then coupled this data with the data library of The Echo Nest - one of the leading providers of data on musical tracks with over 1 trillion data points on 37,000,000+ songs.

We worked with a musicologist to help us examine which musical variables we should analyse and designed an algorithm to translate audio data into visual form. MixShape generatively renders the data into shapes, colours and animations. This plots a curve/flow that could be adjusted to fit your needs whatever the occasion.

We created a distinct visual language that allows users to make sense of the nature of their tracks. Each song is made up of a cluster of primary shapes. The geometric complexity, colour, saturation, scale and density of the shapes are influenced by how danceable, lively or energetic the song is.

Our expectation and ambition was to create a genuinely useful music tool that changed the playlist behaviours of the masses.

The website has only launched recently (26th March 2013) so it’s early days yet but as of the 9th April we’ve had 46,370 site visits & 39,495 unique visits. In terms of engagement over 19,000 playlists have undergone the MixShape treatment. With average time spent on the site at 1:30min people are on the whole completing the user journey.

There have been over 6 million media impressions with 34 news articles (including The Verge, The Next Web & Tech Radar) and a public endorsement from James Lavelle, one half of music maestro’s UNKLE. Our music credentials have already attracted major labels to get in contact with several other high profile artists asking to use MixShape as part of their own online presence.

Overall the response has been overwhelmingly positive with over 99% of the 1,400+ tweets putting forward a positive sentiment.

We are currently in negotiation with various partners to roll-out MixShape internationally, and we're working with musicians to utilise the platform to drive further engagement with their fans.