Connecting your music taste with friends has never been easier. Aux, a mobile platform slated for release this week, will allow users to effortlessly link Spotify Premium accounts together to curate the ultimate playlist and limit music indecision.
Galen Krugly, the co-founder and CEO of Aux, is currently taking a year away from his alma mater to focus on launching the app. His team, largely made up of college students attending UNC, NC State and Yale, is seeking to create a platform that allows users to “frictionlessly collaborate with others in music.”
“Around two years ago, my co-founder William [Cahan] and I met here at UNC our freshman year and just kind of saw this overarching need for an ability to bridge gaps in groups and make decisions for groups,” Krugly said. “And so, we recognized that the number one place where group indecision was ramping up was in the listening landscape, in music.”
Born out of the need to curate seamless listening environments for groups, Aux has since expanded past Krugly and Cahan by bringing a different college experience into the fold — namely, NC State.
Alexa Clymer, the director of public relations for Aux and a fourth-year studying communications, joined Aux in July. Clymer works with publications large and small to get the word out about Aux and brings a unique perspective to the team as the only Raleigh-based intern.
“Not only does that give us a different perspective of the student body and the people that we’re trying to serve, as this is geared toward more younger people in the beginning,” Krugly said. “But it also provides us with their personal perspectives from the university.”
Clymer explains that at its core, Aux will allow users to link music streaming accounts and curate “the best listening environment.”
“You know — road trip, party, anything, you’re going to have exactly what you need to listen to, because it’s going to have everybody’s preferences mixed in,” Clymer said.
Platforms like Boil the Frog, a website where users can input two artists and create an artificial intelligence-generated “path” between the two, have been around for years. However, Aux would be one of the first services to curate music based on multiple listeners’ accounts. Group Spotify playlists can be tricky and difficult to navigate and so are similar features across other streaming platforms.
“If you want to go make a group playlist on Spotify, you can — it’s still arduous,” Krugly said. “What we do is, we take the preferences of everybody in the room and immediately with a single click, you’re able to have a playlist curated in seconds.”
The platform, which for right now will only be available on any mobile device, is slated to debut in late August. Krugly and his team are already planning for updates, including a location-based feature that will allow users to immediately link with their friends nearby on the app.
Beyond the tech jargon and minute attention to detail, Aux is seeking to reach a younger demographic, overall. From college students to TikTok influencers, Clymer is working with public relations firms and larger publications to spread the word. Plus, she’ll be keeping a close eye on universities at large to see how well students connect with the app.
“As soon as our app fully launches in the next few weeks, our short-term goals are to really focus on universities,” Clymer said. “Especially the ones that we have people who work with us at, just to understand our demographic and understand where the numbers are and how interested people are going to be.”
Interested users should take note that Aux will, for the time being, only be available to Spotify Premium users. But thanks to Spotify’s sweet deal for students, a Premium account won’t break the bank if you’ve been holding out.
“We want to really have this collaborative listening experience with people,” Clymer said. “And I know, at least for the people I know, music is huge. Everyone’s life, especially in college. …We want to make sure we’re taking the hassle out of it, and everything that comes with using Aux is just enjoyable and easy.”
