Warner Music Group’s long-promised superfan app is moving closer to reality, with a more sophisticated version now being tested by a select group of users, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
The app, which features Ed Sheeran as its first featured artist, has progressed from its earlier beta version that was first made available to some employees for testing in spring.
Sheeran is now “actively posting” on an in-development version of the app, according to the WSJ interview with Atlantic Records CEO Elliot Grainge.
It’s unclear from the WSJ report when other artists might join the app, or what WMG’s long-term plans for the platform are.
Sources tell MBW that Warner is still experimenting, so the exact look of the app and its launch date remain up in the air.
Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl first revealed the company’s plans to build a superfan app last year during a Web Summit tech conference in Doha, Qatar.
The initial beta version of the app reportedly resembled “an Instagram feed of only Ed Sheeran posts that users could like and comment on” but was considered “bare bones in both tech and content”.
The WSJ reports that Sheeran “had a lot of feedback” on the initial version.
