MNSpin is a place to listen to local music. Anyone can stream, but they can only download if they have a card registered in Hennepin County Library (this includes anyone with reciprocal borrowing in Minnesota). It was funded completely by the Friends of Hennepin County Library. There have been 14,000 streams from 12/2017 - 2/2018 and all 54 artists have been accessed. Only 10 libraries in the nation have similar resources.
This project took a lot of work, so they limit submissions to one cycle/year- otherwise too much for staff.
A lot of stakeholders meant a lot of communication needed to happen:
- Community
- Friends of the library
- Musicians
- Staff
- Vendors -Madison, Wisconsin-based Rabble created the site.
The County attorney, library director and county administrator had to sign off on things -took more time than expected.
Steps for MNSpin prior to selection:
- Named site - asked staff for input.
- Created logo- applied for a trademark in MN.
- Evaluated database products.
- Communicated with staff about the project.
- Reached out for ambassadors to publicize MNSpin - took months to create a relationship with ambassadors.
- Identified public and staff curators- looking for intense genre interest and broad-based knowledge.
- Trained curators on database interface.
HCL reached out to organizations such as record stores, professional musician groups, music schools, instrument stores, and radio stations for ambassadors to publicize the project:
- Warming House -listening room
- MN Music Coalition
- Diverse Emerging Music Coalition- run by ex-First Avenue manager.
- Willie’s American Guitars
- Hifi Hair
- MacPhail Center for Music
- Electric Fetus - record store
- KMOJ -radio station
- KFAI - radio station
MNSpin selection criteria:
- Have to live mostly in Minnesota.
- Employees not eligible.
- No artists under 15- age 15-17 parents need to sign.
- Artist is responsible for securing rights to samples, covers, etc.
- Diverse content that reflects the community, including possibly offensive content
- Nothing older than 5 years -release date is required.
HCL will keep music for a minimum of 2 years. The artist still has copyright- can sign with a label.
MNSpin selection process:
- Asked patrons to submit music by a particular date.
- Asked ambassadors to promote via their networks.
- Used staff to bring down to a manageable level before sending to community curators. 347 submissions is a lot to listen to. Staff rated on a scale of 1-5, then sent best to curators.
- Used Excel to calculate aggregate scores. Curation took about a month and a half.
- Asked curators for feedback on what worked and what didn't.
What they learned:
- Get names, then get more names - start dropping them early and often.
- Be persistent - people get busy
- You gotta have food!
Future plans:
- Change rating system to 1-3, because no one wanted to give albums 1s or 5s
- Add to library catalog - currently a separate site.
- Add patron rating system.
- Train curators just before they get into the database so it’s fresh for them
Looking at the site, my feeling is that their current selection process is biased towards middle-of-the-road genres due to the culling process and lack of curators in certain areas. This will probably be rectified as they add more curators and patrons weigh in.
Also, they use the same broad subject headings as their CDs, so "Pop" would cover metal, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R & B, electronica, etc. More granular genres would be better when the musicians are not well-known.
Presentation is here.
--Andrea @GLCL
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