While there’s still some talk about the fairly new Instagram algorithm and how Snapchat blew everyone’s expectations out of the water with its rapid and profitable rise in the hearts and lives of Millennials and young people all over the globe, there might be a new kid in social media town worth talking about. It’s called Musical.ly and it’s musically packed with fun.
Launched two years ago, the mobile app’s 60 million user base is on the rise. Having conquered teens all over the US, it should come as no surprise that it got a $100 million funding, therefore recording a $500 million post-money valuation. Its creators state that it’s a “video social network”, allowing its users – aka. “musers” – to share their artistic side with the world. The app is available for both iOS and Android and it’s totally free. The likes of Ariana Grande, Paris Hilton and Keke Palmer are all over the app already, so why aren’t you?
Musical.ly – DIY music videos
The Musical.ly mobile app is all about having fun and going all in, performing how you dreamed of as a child. Remember when you were lipsyncing in front of the mirror to your favorite songs, using whatever resembled a microphone the most? It’s probably just yesterday you were singing along to your favorite tracks. Why not take things to the next level? This app enables you to get really creative with your singing moments. No more bad recording sounds from trying to make it work old school style – now the song is playing in the background of the video without you having to do anything other than picking out the song, cutting it down to your favorite part and rapping along.
The app is very interactively built. As in the first thing you see when entering the app, is the home menu: all of the videos uploaded by the musers you are following, who are featured by Musical.ly at the moment or (and this is really cool) the ones in your city. Swiping up and down will easily get you through the video feed.
The videos are neatly organized. On the right side of the video, you’ll see a few icons showing you the muser who posted said video, the number of likes and comments the video has received and a record-like icon that’ll take you to a profile-like page of the song. You can either use it to shoot your own video with or browse through other popular or recent videos that have used it.
Now let’s head on over to actually shooting a video. You’ll start by choosing one of the three: you either pick out a song first, or you record yourself first, or you pick a video you already have from your phone’s library. We decided to pick out a song first and chose one from the online library the app offers. Next, you need to choose your video settings: how fast or slow you want the video to play out, the exact part of the song you want to record, if it’s the front or the main camera of your phone you’ll be using and so on.
After you’re done with all of this, hit the big, red recording button on the bottom of the screen and start recording. Now you can pick out some filters for your recording (as you would in Instagram) or some special effects, like reverse or time trap. Title your recording with a popular tag so it’ll be more visible for all the musers out there. Tag a friend to share the fun (and the fame). You can either save the video privately or post it to your Musical.ly profile. If you’re in a sharing mood, feel free to share your music video with friends on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook’s very own Messenger.
What’s hot?
Challenges and contests
We find the Search menu very well put together. We’re all used to scrolling around in our feeds until we get bored out of our minds. The Musical.ly app did a good job in showing the user what else is happening, what else is everyone up to. Right at the top it shows you the trending contest of the moment, giving you the possibility to read up on it and join in with your own video. How cool is that?! We love this idea of the contests and challenges. Way to go Musical.ly in getting everyone involved!
The next few boxes maintain the “trending” attitude by showing you the hottest songs and musers of the moment and live moments of users all over the world. There’s also a really nice list of trending hashtags; again, you can either just look through and have a good laugh or get inspired and join in the craziness.
Interactive UX
It’s really cool how easy the communication with fellow musers is. You can leave comments on the videos, you can choose to ask the user a question or even ask him or her to start a duet. Though this idea of the duet is something we applaud, it’s not that easy to come by: you either have to get the muser you want a duet with to follow you back, or make you Best Fan Forever (yep, that’s a real thing in Musical.ly). It sure is worth a try though, sounds like a lot of fun. Anyhow, this mobile app got itself a lot of points for the way it ushers its users to interact with one another.
Big on the community
We also find the “my city” feed, in the main menu, to be an ingenious way to connect the muser to its geographical community. It sure feels good seeing someone near you having fun the same way you do, seeing places familiar to you. The app also helps you connect to the musers you like via Instagram, by adding a special icon to the user’s Instagram account, in the user’s profile bio (if he or she enables this).
What’s not?
Bug fixes
The app could definitely use some. There are moments when things don’t seem to go as planned. For example, you might find the app having problems updating its video content (like the number of likes for a particular video) or simply crashing without notice or whatsoever. We did not face a bunch of these problems, but we can imagine the app closing down on you in your biggest Barbie Girl moment, isn’t something to look forward to.
Bottom line
All in all, the Musical.ly app is really entertaining. Whether you’re into rapping along to your favorite songs, getting inspired by what others are creating or having a blast watching the trending videos of the moment, this mobile app has something for everyone. Small piece of advice: if you’re into marketing, keep in mind that the user segment you’ll most probably reach via this platform is a pretty young one. But a creative one at that!
(Note: We are not affiliated or endorsed by this app. We just really love mobile apps and we want to share them with the world and give people great mobile experiences)
Get the Musical.ly app for iOS right here. No worries, you can find it for your Android smartphone right here.
Sinziana Chitea
Content Marketer
Content Marketing Specialist, teasing everyone into taking cute pictures for Instagram. Discovering the tech world bit by bit, and writing it all down on the agency's blog. Enthusiastic about everything visual. And sweets and dogs.
