ALL PROJECTS / 2014/2020
Serendipity / Listening Together
2014/2020
Spotify
Spotify streaming data, real-time data visualization, geospatial visualization, web animation, creative direction
"Spotify's 'Serendipity' map shows when two people played the same song at the exact same time" by Ellis Hamburger for The Verge
"Audio Connects Us All in Spotify's Newest Campaign, 'Listening Together'" for Spotify Newsroom
"Listening Together, Miles Apart" by Gandalf Hernandez for Spotify Engineering
"Explore the Star-Crossed Spotify Users Listening to Songs In Sync" by Mario Aguilar for Gizmodo
"Spotify's resident media artist program unlocks the power and beauty of data" by Terrence O'Brien for Engadget
"Spotify's mesmerizing new map shows that music can be social again" by John McDuling for Quartz
"This Map Shows When 2 People Play the Same Song at the Same Time" by Laura Stampler for Time
"Digital Art Friday: Kyle McDonald, 'Serendipity,' at Spotify" by Brady Dale for Technical.ly
Data visualization work for Spotify showing near-simultaneous listening connections across the world, first as Serendipity and later as the Listening Together campaign.
Serendipity surfaced fleeting overlaps between listeners who pressed play on the same track at nearly the same moment during Kyle’s media-artist residency at Spotify. Listening Together revisited the same conceptual direction in 2020 as a global campaign and microsite rebuilt by Spotify without Kyle’s technical involvement.