Kiite World: A Web Service for Social-Aware Music Exploration on a Map Through Playlist Sharing and Synchronized Listening

Numerous systems have been proposed for placing songs on a map to enable music exploration, but existing systems assume that users explore alone and thus lack social interactions, which has been identified as a significant issue for these systems. In this paper, we describe “Kiite World,” a web service that enables social-aware music exploration. Kiite World has over 440,000 songs placed on a map and lets users perform the following social interactions while moving their avatars: (1) Users can publish “My Kiite World,” where songs from their created playlists are displayed on the map, and they can visit each other's “My Kiite Worlds” to explore songs on the map. (2) The activities of all users exploring songs on Kiite World are visualized in real time, enabling users to synchronize with interested users and explore songs while listening to music together. (3) Any user can easily host music events where she listens to her favorite songs together with other users while they synchronize with her. Analysis of user behavior logs over seven months revealed several reusable insights on the usefulness of incorporating social aspects into map-based music exploration (e.g., users often like songs that are farther from their original interests as a result of exploring songs in other users' “My Kiite Worlds.”).