By translating certain parameters of the digital music stream back to analog, LisTen visualizes the progress of the song being played, how many songs are on the playlist and by whom they have been added.

We chose to concentrate on a social scenario in which people enjoy and share music collectively. The playlist becomes a visual incentive, so that every participant is able to contribute to the common effort of preventing the playlist from ending.
Limiting the number of tracks to ten, keeps the playlist up to date with the mood of the get-together. Tracks are represented as marbles that are placed onto the spinning plate. The color of each marble represents the person participating in the selection of the songs. Participants choose a color to be identified with. As soon as a participant adds a song to the playlist, a marble pops out of the reservoir and rolls to the waiting line. When the song starts playing, the first marble is being pushed to the starting position of the plate and illuminated in the corresponding color. The plate starts rotating, moving the marble upwards. The time it takes for the marble to reach the middle, is related to the length of the song. After a song is finished, its marble drops through a hole to the backside of the plate, rolling back to the reservoir. When the playlist is shuffled, the songs are brought into a different order by changing their color.
With LisTen, shared music is made tangible again, and therefore gains more attention, by which mutual participation is increased.