Echo

Your Playlist Finds Its Place.

Comment 1

Inspiration

We started with a simple question: what if your playlist could guide your life outside your headphones? Gen Z connects deeply with mood, music, and aesthetic, yet most discovery platforms feel cluttered, generic, or transactional. We wanted to create something more intentional. Echo was born from a desire to bridge music and real-world experiences while helping local businesses connect with people on a personal level.

What it does

Echo takes your playlist and translates its mood into curated suggestions for local activities, events, and spaces. Whether you're feeling nostalgic, euphoric, or in your soft girl era, Echo maps that mood to nearby experiences. For businesses, Echo offers a new way to reach Gen Z through emotional context and curated discovery.

How we built it

A lot of trial and error. We used React and TypeScript for the frontend, integrated the Spotify API for playlist data, and pulled events from the Ticketmaster API. To work around Spotify’s limited client-side data and avoid CORS issues, we set up a custom proxy server that handles external API requests and improves reliability across endpoints. Figma and Canva were used for our design and prototype.

Challenges we ran into

Spotify data isn't always directly usable, so we had to find creative ways to extract mood and meaning from tracks. We also ran into cross-origin sharing issues when calling external APIs like Ticketmaster, which led us to building a proxy server to smooth out the workflow. Balancing mood accuracy, clean UX, and real-time data was an ongoing challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Getting authentication to work was a major milestone. Setting up OAuth with Spotify, handling tokens securely, and making sure the experience felt seamless for users took real effort. It’s the backbone that makes Echo feel personal and dynamic from the start. We’re also proud of how we translated a fun, creative idea into a business concept with real potential for community impact, one that not only helps people feel more connected to their city, but also gives local businesses a new way to thrive.

What we learned

Honestly, everything. From authentication flows and server routing to mood detection logic and third-party API integration, every step was a learning curve. We also learned the importance of keeping things simple. The more intuitive the product feels, the more powerful the experience becomes.

What's next for Echo

We’re expanding our database of curated venues and events, adding place-list sharing so users can recommend their favorite spots, and launching sponsored placements so businesses can feature mood-aligned experiences to the right audiences.

We’re also beginning to integrate retail — helping users discover shops, brands, and pop-ups that match their personal vibe. From concept stores to capsule collections, Echo will make music and mood the entry point to lifestyle discovery across food, events, and fashion.

Our goal is to make Echo the go-to platform for vibe-based lifestyle curation — rooted in music, driven by mood, and always connected to the real world.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates