Messaging app MSTY partners with Apple Music

Apple Music will incorporate its library within MSTY, a UK-based mobile app that allows users to express their feelings to their friends using music.

MSTY, which stands for My Song To You, will tap into Apple’s music archives to let users send 30-second song clips to one another. The app, which launched today for iOS and Android, allows users to select a track from its catalogue, and customise their message with text and images, before sending the results to a friend.

“What MSTY can do, but others cannot, is invoke an emotional response that others cannot achieve,” says Grant Bovey, founder of MSTY.

“Sometimes simple words and images won’t cut it – MSTY allows you to add that deeper level of emotion through the power of music.”

Jumping into the growing popularity of music messaging, the British start-up will be competing alongside similar apps including Music Messenger, Rithm and Facebook Messenger’s Ditty.

To date, MSTY is the first music app to integrate with the new Apple Music streaming service. Users currently have access to 2,000 songs on the MSTY database, but this number is set to grow to 22 million. At the end of every message, the recipient is provided with a link to Apple Music where they can buy the track.

Speaking to MusicAlly, Bovey explained the mechanics behind the integrated promotion between Apple and MSTY: “We get a kicker from Apple for any customer that we deliver to them that then goes on to subscribe to Apple Music. We also get a fee if somebody goes on to iTunes and buys a track.”

According to Venture Beat, MSTY will receive $7.50 for every person that becomes an Apple subscriber through the music messaging app. However, MSTY have no plans to monetise further from advertisements or revenue-generating streams.

“Clearly there’s potential for MSTY to also do sponsorship deals: Mothers Day, Father’s Day etc. But we aren’t worrying too much about monetising it in the short term,” Bovey told Musically.

“Our game plan is to get it out there and acquire as many active users as we can over the next six, nine, 12 months.”