Upcoming changes to the membership system

Since RChain’s investment in Resonate, our team has been working hard to deliver the co-op with a viable service that accords with our values and aims.

Later this year, substantial revisions will be made to our membership system. We’re hoping to deliver these changes in Q4, but in the meantime, we want to keep you informed about what we’re keeping busy with.

Our systems guru Matt Keenan is leading the dev team on this; they’re working hard to build a new system almost entirely from scratch, taking into account all of the lessons we’ve learned so far. Key in the redesign is a massive push for more transparency, privacy and control for users; as well as a reconfiguration of artist/listener identity on the platform.

Privacy and transparency

We’ve been clear from the get-go that user privacy matters to us. This is something we’re focusing on across a number of fronts, from visibility between users, to the protection of user data.

Our eventual goal is to give users control over all information they give us – how it’s shared, with whom and when. So for example, the eventual system will allow users to choose when to be public with their activities on Resonate. For instance, you could be completely private about your listening habits, where not even the Resonate team would know what you’re listening to. You could also decide to be semi-private, letting the artists you support see that you’re listening to. Or, you could choose to be totally public about your taste, letting anyone know who you’re listening to.

This is the end goal that we’re working towards, but the big question we’ve been addressing is: how do we get there? While we may not achieve all of these features from the next release, they are very much a part of our overall vision. With such a system, artists could see where their audience is. Listeners could also observe how their activities are supporting artists. The main idea is that everyone will get to choose whether or not to make their information available for such purposes.

It’s important to us that privacy and control is built into Resonate from the design stage, and that it isn’t considered as an afterthought.

User accounts and profiles

A number of Resonate members have been asking us about whether or not they need to make multiple accounts as listeners and artists. With our existing system, the reality is that there is a hard line between listener and artist accounts, but once our new membership system is implemented, there won’t be. 

With the new system, you can have one user account that is linked to a number of different personas. You make your main account, and then if you wish, you can add profiles for artists, labels or distributors (though for labels and distributors, there will be a few more hoops to jump through – our catalog will only feature music with solid legal backing).

So for example, say you have a core Resonate account that you use to #stream2own. You’re part of a punk band and create a profile for it, so that you and your bandmates can manage the page and upload music. But you also have a solo project where you make techno. That’s no problem at all – you can make another profile for that, accessed and managed through your core account. It’s always up to you whether or not those accounts are visibly linked; you don’t have to share your listener profile if you don’t want to.

Resonate is built by and for musicians, so we understand that artists are always coming up with new projects and collaborations. Flexibility around multiple profiles is a must.

Thank you for using our service, and for being patient as we work on these various developments. There are some really exciting things on the way, so please keep an eye out for them!