Metso LIVE – The unique Finnish music library concept combining people, live music, library content and social media

Abstract

Due to the massive changes in the consumption and use of music albums in the age of streaming services the workers in the music department of the Tampere City Library's Main Library Metso were already answering this revolutionizing challenge. The pioneering idea behind Metso LIVE is to bring together library customers, artists, live music and library collections in a way never seen before. Since the first events many famous Finnish singers & songwriters and bands from many musical genres have visited the Metso Library's intimate and hot stage: 22-Pistepirkko, Pekko Käppi, Olavi Uusivirta, TRE-Funk III, Eva Alkula, Joona Toivanen, Felix Zenger, Aino Venna, Ninni Poijärvi & Ali Alawad – the list goes on and on. Metso LIVE's speciality is that the guests share their book, music, movie recommendations in an interview hosted by a staff librarian before the live gig. The success of the new music library model and the innovating approach of Metso LIVE got the Library Developer of the Year -award by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2015. Social media services Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are used for marketing and sharing Metso LIVE -content in various and colourful ways. In 2016 the music department started HD quality live streaming on YouTube, leading to an unpresedented way to approach library customers in the digital world.