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recently, a friend created a wechat group chat on a whim and wanted to invite everyone to share the books he had recently read, the movies he watched, the music he listened to, etc. however, two days later, he pressed the "dismissal group chat" button.

i asked him why, and he said that there were only casual chats and copy-pasted jokes in the group. no one was talking about interesting works, and he didn't need more group chats for "feeding".

"isn't there a platform for people to simply share what movies they are watching and what songs they are listening to?" he asked helplessly.

on the other side of the ocean, there really is such a social platform.

a cyber bookshelf that can hold anything

this app called "shelf" is indeed as its name suggests. it is a more versatile cyber "bookshelf": whatever books you are reading recently, what movies or tv series you are watching, what songs you are listening to, and what games you are playing can all be placed on it. display on bookshelf.

after installation and registration, shelf will first invite you to access your apple music, spotify, netflix and goodreads (overseas reading website) platform accounts to synchronize your content consumption progress.

i only use apple music among these platforms. after linking, i can see in real time what artists, songs, albums and genres i listen to most after connecting to shelf. it is updated every 3 hours. apple music itself only has a review once a month.

although i don't use netflix and goodreads, i can still manually put related works on the "bookshelf" through shelf's internal search, but there is no more detailed real-time updates of style, progress, etc., so the experience is still somewhat compromised.

synchronized and personally selected items will appear on the "bookshelf" on their homepage in the form of images and data. users can customize what items to put in the bookshelf and the color of the bookshelf.

shelf even has an "other" section that allows users to post their favorite media types, including videos from tiktok or youtube, and article links from news websites.

however, not all links are supported. for example, article links on aifaner's official website or wechat public accounts cannot be pasted or display garbled characters.

compared with douban, which has similar functions in china, shelf currently has many fewer functions and is more like a "statistical tool" with a certain amount of social interaction.

you can follow specific accounts on it to receive their newly shared content updates, and you can also initiate anonymous questions on the entire platform to recommend a suitable movie to watch and edit your own preferences and needs.

throughout the entire app, there are no more than five places where text can be entered. not only can users not send private messages, but the shared works can only be posted with an emoji to express feelings, but not words.

users can also explore strangers' "bookshelfs" with the same content hobbies to follow, and conduct further conversations through third-party social platform links on the homepage.

yes, unlike some social media that strictly prohibit users from providing other platforms, shelf not only does not prohibit it, but also provides many outlets for sharing weekly newspapers and bookshelf pages to other platforms, and also encourages users to provide contact information outside of shelf.

comparing douban, it is obvious that these are products from two different eras.

douban also tracks multiple media types. douban requires users to manually mark it, because in the era of its birth, our content consumption methods were still decentralized: watching tv shows, listening to songs and watching movies, and downloading, and basically reading. physical books, the platform cannot automatically record these behaviors.

in the era of streaming media, our content consumption habits are highly integrated on mobile phones, tablets and other terminals. the app backend will record personal content consumption behavior in detail. only a platform like shelf can automatically capture relevant data and record it automatically.

of course, this app has just been launched in the app store this year, and many functions are not perfect. for now, i personally think that the "social" part can actually be richer.

shelf's homepage

next, shelf will also support film and television streaming media hulu, amazon kindle reading, and synchronization with the steam platform.

modern people’s overwhelming desire to share

our sharing of content consumption is gradually taking over social platforms.

in today's moments, in addition to sharing beautiful photos and mood essays, you can always see a lot of screenshots similar to the "now playing" interface of music apps, or movie ticket stubs and poster check-in photos, and even cinema screen shots that have caused controversy.

at the end of the year, various music apps will launch exquisite "year summaries", and then the circle of friends will be flooded with relevant screenshots.

source: kuai technology

perhaps in public perception, it is mainly domestic music platforms that are involved in social life and death, but in fact, overseas streaming applications are no longer the pure "pure land of music" in our impression.

the two most famous streaming media platforms, spotify and apple music, actually have the function of following the account, so you can see what the other person is listening to. especially spotify, it can even display in real time which songs the friends you follow are listening to.

both companies also come with annual reports as standard, and apple music even includes a “monthly summary.” spotify has “music capsules”.

source: bgr

usually we are disgusted with the collection of private data by platforms, but on music apps, everything is completely reversed. we are not afraid that you will collect it, but we are afraid that you will not collect it. some users even switched to spotify because apple music did not have the "year summary" function in the early years.

not only do users like to see their own private listening data, they also want others to see it. according to data from the analysis agency sprout social, in 2022, three days after the release of spotify's annual summary, related keywords were mentioned 400 million times on x.

in 2020, a college student named michelle liu built a website called "reciptify", which can collect the songs that individuals have listened to most on spotify in the past week and generate a "receipt".

this website, which was originally intended for use by school clubs, crashed 12 hours after it went online, forcing liu to upgrade the server.

compared with the official summary of the platform, reciptify is more flexible and more real-time; compared with third-party tools for real-time capture such as last.fm and obscurify, reciptify is more beautiful and suitable for dissemination on social platforms.

so after discovering shelf, my first reaction was "it's too late to meet you" rather than "it's refreshing", because in essence, shelf stands on the shoulders of giants and integrates to create a platform that supports cross-platform and multiple contents. "receiptify" in the form.

as humans and netizens, many of us are "slash", we don't just like music, movies, variety shows and all these things. adding supported categories not only expands your user base but also deepens usage among existing users.

these words of jad esber, founder of shelf developer koodos labs, actually reveal one of the secrets that made shelf popular as soon as it was launched: pop culture is not just about music, we consume a variety of different contents.

although shelf declined to share the number of users, they said that users have added 500 million pieces of content to the "bookshelf". the number of "bookshelfs" is growing at a rate of 40% every month, and users visit shelf five times a week on average. see what changes happen on your own and other people's shelves.

not only has users gained popularity, koodos labs has raised us$7 million from many investment companies. senior executives from vsco, reddit, pinterest, etc. have served as corporate consultants and joined nvidia's startup company program.

of course, as an emerging platform, shelf will also face pressure to monetize in the future. at least so far, this is the farthest product of this startup.

What's On Your Shelf

a few years ago, there was a trend on social networks called "what's in my bag".

under related topics, netizens took photos and shared what they carry in their bags, such as mobile phones, ipods, kindles, and tablets. the more interesting ones they saw were high school textbooks, bibles, swiss army knives, and other uncommon items.

i have collected this baidu tieba post, and it has been updated three to four hundred times in the few months since it was posted.

why do we want to pay attention to what other people carry in their bags? in other words, why do we want to show off what we carry in our bags?

in the same way, listening to songs, watching dramas, and reading are obviously our own personal experiences. why are we so keen on showing them to others?

brian uzzi, a professor of social networking at northwestern university who has done extensive research on spotify’s year-end summary, believes that this form of sharing satisfies two somewhat contradictory human desires:

we want to be part of a group, but we also want to stand out.

this is actually very understandable. for some so-called "treasure musicians" who are not well-known, we like to share them in our circle of friends, hoping to meet more like-minded people; but when the gold finally shines, we worry that they are too popular. , sharing on social platforms seems like following the trend.

showing personal taste is also a way to meet new friends and find "organization".

this is similar to how the platform captures user big data to accurately match user hobbies. the more detailed we disclose what music we like to listen to, what movies or tv series we watch, the more our personality and personal image will be reflected on the internet, and naturally the more easily recognized by "similar" people.

shelf is not a complete acquaintance social platform. even if you don't choose to put related content on your own shelf, the system will recommend strangers' profiles to you based on your preference for certain songs, movies, or books, a bit like an alternative version of tinder.

this instead makes shelf, a platform that obviously cannot allow much interaction, return to the purest function of social media: helping people make new friends while staying in touch with old friends.

there is a five-star review on the app store:

i love this app, even when i'm busy and my family and friends are far away, i can get a glimpse into their lives.

you don’t even need to know what tv series the other person is watching. as long as the speed and frequency of watching it, you can get a rough idea of ​​the other person’s recent life status.

however, due to the popular "contempt chain" on the internet, not everyone is willing to turn their content consumption habits into a public spectacle, and do not want to fall into a certain stereotype.

does it mean that because i love watching marvel superhero blockbusters that i am a shallow person?

therefore, not only do some people refuse to disclose their content consumption habits, the "wall street journal" even reported that some people will play certain songs and artists on a loop before the annual listening to music summary is released, just to make their summary more "pretty." .

spotify year in summary

is this the alienation of people by the platform? yes, but no. in essence, these people who are unwilling to face real data may not be willing to face their true selves.

no matter what song you listen to, what movie you watch, or what book you read, it is actually a process of making yourself happy.

shelf just wants to help you record these joys and provide a platform to share them with others.

personal experience: alternative cyber diary

compared to a "bookshelf", shelf is actually more like an automatic "diary" for me.

i don’t know if you all have this feeling: for a period of time, you will be addicted to a certain song or album, and when you listen back to it a few months or years later, it will feel like you are in that time again.

this isn’t limited to music, either. for me, the american tv series "euphoria" represents a period of time at home, and big thief's album "ufof" represents the time in the final stage of my postgraduate entrance examination.

the most lasting related impression is the song "somewhere over the rainbow" that was played on repeat during the sixth grade summer vacation. every time i listen to it, i feel like i am back to that summer day when i went to the community library to blow on the air conditioner.

and for some experiences, i can never remember what i was listening to or watching at that time.

shelf is not only focused on social networking, but also on private experiences. shelf can call up the timeline and combine it with the automatic recording function to see what you were obsessed with at that time.

image source: tiktok@getashelf

a few months later, i will be able to click on these songs one by one and review the bgm that lingered in my ears this summer.

life is not somewhere else, but in every recorded "moment". shelf uses a more special way to collect each "moment" for you.

text｜su weihong