IRL Derive
by Stein Rozenberg and Sanne de Ruiter

We decided on meeting each other at the central train station Delft. Stein lives in Rotterdam and Sanne in The Hague, so it was a nice in the middle meeting point for both of us. We also both haven’t been to the city many times before. We thought that this way walking around would be even more interesting since we didn’t know what to expect.

We started by using the app to walk our route through the city. We quickly realized a lot of the instruction weren’t really doable because of COVID and other reasons. So, we started to randomly Type in a pattern of right and left on our phone and see where we would end up.

Online Derive on Spotify
By Sanne de Ruiter

I went on derive in Spotify. At first, I didn’t really know how I was going to derive in this app. I started looking around. I saw lots of playlist that where called “made for You”. I thought it was funny because I would normally go directly to one of those playlists because there is almost a 100% guaranty that I would like or know the songs that would get played. But this time I wanted to experience something I wouldn’t normally click on or listen to and just “derive”. I looked at the side of the app where all of the friends I have added on Spotify are. You can see what they are listening to. Some friends have the same music taste as me, but others also have a whole different one and listen to stuff I would never listen to. I decided to go through the accounts of my friends and listen to the songs they
where last listening to and see where I would end up.

The first song was from my friend Lucas. It was a song I Knew very well and would listen to myself. I jammed on the song and sang along.
Drivers license – Olivia Rodrigo

The second song I kind of knew but I never listened to it fully. I came to the conclusion I actually really liked the song but just never gave it a change. I also danced to this song and added it to my “liked song”. Because I liked the song but didn’t really know the creator, I wanted to see what more music the creator had made. I discovered that he was a creator of two other songs I listened to a lot in a period of time but didn’t know he was the singer.
Sick and tired – Iann Dior

After some time, I went on to the next person. My friend Joost who listens to a lot of movie and game songs. His taste in music is really different from mine so I was curious to see where I would end up. As I thought it was a song, I would normally not listen to myself. I didn’t really like it but listened to it fully to give it a change. I wasn’t tended to go more into the creator of this song, so I moved on the next friend.
Pirate jet - Gorillaz

The next friend really has the same taste as me and I already recognized the title of the song. I love the song she was listening to and love the creator, but I actually don’t really listen to it that often and forgot that a lot of the songs he made existed. So, I went on and listened to the playlist and the creator more and it brought a lot of songs and memories back in me. I love how this way I rediscovered songs and feelings I forgot I had.
Luck be a lady – Frank Sinatra

My next friend has also kind of the same taste. She listened to I number I didn’t know. The song was nice but not something I would listen to on repeat (which I do often if I like a song).
I knew the creator but not that well, so I went to take a look at more of his songs. He had A song that I had in my “liked songs” but also just forgot. So, it was again really nice to rediscover music this way.
Doyouseeit – ROLE MODEL

Derive trough music:
Music is everywhere. Music can give a whole other meaning to certain things like for example a place. Music can bring up memories and emotions. Sometimes you just want to share these experiences with the rest of the world so they can experience it with you.

How does it work?
People can add their own music and playlist to a certain place on a map.
The music is based on the feeling people get from this place, the music that makes them think of the place, Music that people think fits within the place etc.

is there for example a song that when you listen to it, it just brings you back to a certain place and all the memories that come with it?
And don’t you want to share this feeling with other people?

Through this derive people can share their feeling or experience they got from a place through music with other people.

There is also a feature that you can stream the same music from different phones at the same time.

This way music connects people, experiences and places in a whole new way.

Inspiration: Headphone splitter scene from the movie “Begin Again”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBbmdY6nXfw

“that’s what I love about music, one of the most banal scenes is suddenly invested with so much meaning, you know? All of these banalities they’re suddenly turned into these beautiful, effervescent pearls. From music.”

My derive on spotify

Sanne and I decided to do a derive on spotify.
I did it a little different then Sanne did and just really clicked through
random artists that appealed to me, then after that I would go and look for the
playlist section to see the playlists they’re in or I would go and look to the “fans also like this” section.

I started out with the artists Pantha du Prince. I didn’t know this artist but saw that a friend of mine listened to it.
I thought the name was quite cool so I decided to look it up. After listening to a few songs (popular ones and not so popular ones), I decided I liked the artist.
This is something I’d put on for sure! Through a new song of Pantha du Prince I found another artist, Grandbrothers. Grandbrothers has a similar style to Pantha du Prince, I really enjoyed hearing some of the songs they make and I think I’d play this more often. Looking at the “fans also like this” tab I see a few artists that I already know. I decide to pick the one that, by the name only, is standing out. Now I’m at Poppy Ackroyd. The first song I put on is a piano song. I’m not really in the mood for this, but all with all it’s still very pleasant to listen to. After listening to a few other songs I decide this is not really my thing and I go on to the next artist.
I scroll down and see some other playlists her songs are in. One of the covers of these things really appeals to me and I decide to click on it. The list contains three songs, the last two are remixes of the first one. I really like the second one and I decided to click on one of the artists working on the song, Floex. Floex their music seems a bit odd, although it has something nice to it. I move on to the “fans also like this” section and here I see some artists that look interesting. I click the first one that stands out to me: Kettel. The first song I listen to sounds very familiar, I like it. I scroll down again after a while and click a cover that looks nice. It’s a song of Marco Bernandi. The song really is not my thing. I move on to the next artist, he is called Der Zyklus. From the name only I can tell I might like this artist. I listened to three of his songs and I really like them. It has a very nice vibe to it and I think out all of the artists I listened to I liked this one the most.

It was fun to derive through Spotify. I found some artists I otherwise never would’ve found. The music genre did stay quite the same which in a way was a bit dissapointing.