Dear Zoom — I want Music
Dear Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts Suite Meet (insert latest Google product name here),
I want music.
I want entrance music that I can customize before entering a meeting. And I want some background music¹ to help me the set the vibe.
Why?
Because I’m videoconferencing a lot right now and the virtual world isn’t as cool as the real world yet. It’s tiring.
I think you all can make it better today with music. Peloton has shown it’s possible (and they seem to be doing alright).
With music, I will be able to:
- Have more exciting kickoffs
- Set the mood for post mortems
- Be stoked when someone enters a meeting
- Make someone feel like a WWE star during their virtual summer-cycle performance review
- Give an early cue if I’m in a particular mood
- Host remote dance parties
- Provide a little levity and joy to my fellow participants
- And so much more
Music will make every meeting just a little bit better. And that’s worth a lot — especially now. After all, how we spend our time is how we live our life.
How?
I’m glad I’ve got your attention and interest. I don’t think this will be too complicated. Especially since Zoom nearly does it. I’m a Product Manager, so I figured I’d help you get started with some ideas.
No offense taken if you don’t use these!
Entrance Music
Participants should be able to toggle it on and off before entering the meeting just like how they decide their camera settings. And they should be able to adjust their music amongst a couple of different options. Selecting those songs, or tones, is something people can do in their account settings page.
The entrance music should only play for 5 seconds. This clip should be selectable in the settings page. Look at audio editing tools for interface inspiration.
If multiple people are joining at the same time, the music should queue and be played by order of entry.
Meeting organizers should have the ability to prevent entrance music from playing if someone enters a meeting more than 5 minutes after its scheduled start time. Otherwise it could be annoying and disruptive. By default this should be on.
Background Music
Turning on Background music should only be accessible to the meeting organizer. Participants shouldn’t be able to turn it on. It should be in a similar menu as the ability to record the meeting.
The music should continue to play irrespective of who is screensharing. The volume should be configurable by the organizer, but with a default setting that ensures speech is easy to understand and not drowned out by the music.
When selecting to turn on Background music, the interface should show three main options (previously used) and a button to Search for more. This might have some legal complexity with music rights (again, Peloton has shown it’s possible). I trust you all can figure it out with your collective 2.8 Trillion of market cap².
Thanks for doing this
When you do this, it’s going to be a big deal. You will be making millions of people happier, more effective, and more energized. And when all this craziness is over and some of us go back to the office, I think we will be more likely to keep using your services.
Stoked!
Preet Anand
p.s. Yes, when this comes out, I would love to be included in your blog post!
Footnotes:
- If I had to only pick one song for my entrance music, it would be Tubthumping by Chumbawumba. However I think Ninja Rap could be a nice backup too. For my background music . . . . that’s harder. My go to music for Pomodoros is Simplicity by Macroform. Shared with me by the fine folks from the Reply All podcast.
- One possible solution is to make this a distribution channel for aspiring artists. There are reportedly more than 200M using videoconferencing every day. That’s on a similar scale to Spotify. Some artists may even record new tunes specifically for this medium.
