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Vinylly CEO Talks AI, Expansion, and Music Communities

Global Dating Insights had the pleasure of speaking with Rachel Van Nortwick, CEO & Founder of Vinylly. She told us about the platform’s recent expansion into the UK, the potential for AI to provide valuable user insights, and the origins of the music-focused dating app.

In a recent episode of The GDI Podcast, Rachel Van Nortwick spoke with GDI’s Senior Reporter Sean Nolan to discuss the platform’s unique value proposition for singles, as well as its business development journey. 

Read the discussion below: 

Sean Nolan  

Hi, Rachel, thank you so much for joining me on The GDI Podcast. To start things off, can you tell us about Vinylly, how the platform works, and what makes it unique?

Rachel Van Nortwick  

Sure, thank you for having me Vinylly is the dating app that matches entirely on music compatibility. Users can either sync their Spotify, or they can use our profile generator to sign up. From there, we ask a few questions about the role music plays in their lives, their interests, as well as what they’re looking for on the app.

And then from there, we produce matches, we don’t have swiping on our app, everything is music language based, so you can shuffle or fast forward or push play on matches. And you can also view a match’s playlist and actually listen to the songs they’ve been listening to, prior to pushing play. And then from there, you can use our music-based conversation starters to get the chat going. And you can also search and buy concert tickets within the app. 

One new feature we added a few months back was an AI feature. So you can actually send a user a “drink”. Using our ‘re-mixer’, where you can pick two genres, either from your playlists, or from their playlists, mix them and it creates a bespoke drink, that a user can send to a match, and it actually comes with a recipe and ingredients list as well. So you can make the drink in real life. 

Sean Nolan  

Thank you. I love all the music elements you’ve added to the app. And I think it’s such a unique blend of these two interests, it’s really fascinating. I guess the obvious question is, when you were creating the platform, why did you feel that music was such an important and valuable way to meet new people? How does music play a role in compatibility?

Rachel Van Nortwick  

I’ll tell you first from a personal aspect, I grew up listening to my parents records. Music is my passion, I’ve been to over 500 shows, I will travel everywhere for music. The first thing that I noticed at my first concert was just the connectedness of, of being there, sharing in something like that with other music fans. And that was palpable to me. I have been in relationships where I didn’t have that in common with my partner. And I think that’s really difficult. Anything that’s tied to your lifestyle, your identity, it’s really important that you are with somebody who supports and gets that. 

And so music as an interest is actually – it’s not a niche. Music is something that is shared universally, it’s the number one way that young people express themselves today. Music, actually sharing it with others creates dopamine, it lowers cortisol, proven scientifically. It’s a passion for a lot of people and tied to their identity. So an app that is based on that, matching entirely on music compatibility, didn’t exist.  So, I created Vinylly. And I didn’t want it to be superficial and didn’t want it to be like every other app. I wanted to make sure that it used someone’s music DNA so they could truly be themselves and match with somebody like-minded to them.

Sean Nolan  

Definitely. I think what stands out, from my perspective, the music, it’s not just an add-on. Like another aspect of the profile, which can people can ignore or not pay as much attention to. It’s something that is really, really central to the platform. I think it tells you a lot about the person, perhaps in a way that people might not expect, but I think music has that power. I agree that music can bring people together and especially with in-person events and whatnot, it’s a really unifying power. 

Rachel Van Nortwick  

Yeah, I wanted it to be the core of the app. That’s what it is. I mean, we have chat, and obviously you can upload new photos, but at the core of it, it’s matching on music. And I think if you see someone at a concert area, you see someone listening to music, there’s a sort of a pure joy that happens there where someone’s being completely themselves. And we just wanted to try to bring that out as much as we could on the app.

Sean Nolan  

I want to now ask a little bit about Vinylly from a business standpoint, and from you as a CEO and a Founder. So there’s so many opportunities in terms of partnerships and integrations, you mentioned the ticketing companies and music streaming services and all these different opportunities. Is that an area you’re always looking to enhance with Vinylly?

Rachel Van Nortwick  

We have been approached by a number of music brands, including promoters, artists, labels, to drive, whether it’s the discovery of artists, streams, sell tickets, or promote music television events. And what’s great is that Vinylly is a community of basically just raving music fans, and they’ve come to the app to meet other people, but also to, discover music. So it’s a great platform for that, and Vinylly will never become an advertising-based app. That’s not something that I want to do with the app. But I think there are ways that we can provide value back to these relevant brands, and then also drive value for our users. So we have the direct to consumer aspect, but we also have a platform that’s viable for businesses as well.

Sean Nolan  

And in terms of the platform itself, you recently expanded operations to the UK. Congratulations. Can you tell us about that process of expanding to a new region? How has that experience been for you?

Rachel Van Nortwick  

Sure. So as I just mentioned, we are a community-based app. And the reason that people go on dating apps is to find matches, and so you have to have a base of users, to be able to have a viable amount of matches for people. And so you can’t – I mean you can – but the right way to do it isn’t to just launch an app, all over the world, without having enough awareness in the region to drive downloads.

I want to create a good user experience. So I’ve chosen to be really thoughtful around when we launch and where we launch. And so it was really important to me that we had a good track record and had a good user experience developed in the US & Canada first, before then branching out into other regions. And so we’ve done that. And based off of user feedback, which is what I use to drive a lot of our product decisions and updates, the UK community had been reaching out for a really long time. And so that became the next logical region to launch. And the reception has been great so far. 

There’s so many great artists, that have come out of the UK, and so much passion there for music, and so many incredible music festivals and venues, I could go on and on. And I think for us, we’re just going to continue to think strategically and make sure that we can provide a good user experience, when we do launch in a new region.

Sean Nolan  

What you’ve really highlighted there is the balance between wanting to grow, to serve more and more communities around the world. But without sacrificing the user experience. And obviously people, when they go on a dating app, they do want to go on dates eventually meet people nearby. So that’s an important aspect of it. But yeah, it doesn’t surprise me at all that the UK is logical next step, and I’m definitely looking forward to hearing about more expansion to come in the future. Now, as we’re just starting off in the new year, I wanted to ask, do you have any targets or plans for 2024?

Rachel Van Nortwick  

Yes, so we just started our in app purchases for Vinylly. For us, we wanted to have a sizable user base to justify charging for features within the app. So the app is free to download. But we did launch the IAP (in-app purchases). And obviously, that’s important for us for monetization and for growth. Vinylly is less expensive than the large majority of other dating apps. And again that’s something that also we’re thoughtful about, as we grow. So I think for Vinylly, we’ll keep testing and thinking about the features that we monetize and what cost structure makes sense. 

But we’re always adding features. So what’s interesting about Vinylly versus other dating apps is that there’s an interest around music, not just romantically, but platonically. So we have an option for concert buddies, so you can choose whether it’s concert buddies that lead somewhere or it’s concert buddies truly platonically. You can meet somebody and just go to a concert, or just share music.

And so what we are going to build out is that functionality so that after a couple does meet romantically on Vinylly, they can actually then as a couple, go into another phase where they’re looking for concert buddies. And what’s great about that is it’s just so different, I think, than other traditional dating apps where you just have this sort of cycle and churn. This allows for a longer lifetime value for our users, and provides them that way that they met, they’re familiar with it, and then they can find other like minded people that way, too. So that’s in development.

I think we will expand to potentially more regions this year, as well as also add additional features that will also likely include some AI. So we have a lot of data within the app. And we are able to look at that data and see where truly the best outcomes happen. And it only makes sense that we would want to share that with our users to put them in the best position to actually find someone that they’re meant to be with. So I think that’s something that’ll be really exciting. Almost like a – and I’m saying this very loosely – almost like a 23 and me sort of report, where they can learn a lot about themselves and who they should meet, all at once, and then decide if they want to try to pursue that.

Sean Nolan  

That sounds so interesting, kind of like a Spotify Wrapped?

Rachel Van Nortwick  

Yes, exactly. But in depth more around not just the music they’re listening to, but the types of people to connect with that will lead to what they are looking for and where they may be located and other attributes about ideal matches that goes a level deeper. So yeah, sort of a hybrid between the two. 

Sean Nolan  

That sounds so interesting. I think what you mentioned there about the concert buddies, there’s so much room there also for platonic social discovery. And also, I think you make a good point about couples. If they really trust in Vinylly’s ability to help them explore music, then it’s a shame that they’d have to stop using the app once they find someone. So creating that kind of longer user journey, I think is a really great idea and it helps people to continue using the app’s features, even if they’ve met someone. Sounds like there’s so much on the horizon. I’m really excited to keep finding out more, so I’ll definitely have to invite you back on the podcast soon. But thank you so much for your time today. It’s been great.

Rachel Van Nortwick  

Thank you, Sean. Yes, I would love that.

Find out more about Vinylly on its website here.

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