Lauren Puffpaf
Co-Founder, COO and President of Feed.fm
Where to hear and read about Lauren Puffpaf1 episode or test
Lauren Puffpaf is Co-Founder, COO and President of Feed.fm, which builds licensed music into other companies' apps and devices. Her main lesson is that music built into the product flow is a retention and conversion lever most teams never test, and a single pre-cleared partner makes it cheap to try.
it's actually really impactful on the metrics that matter for subscription businesses.
How to 2X Your App Retention With This Overlooked Ingredient
Lauren Puffpaf: the story and the lessons
1What Lauren Puffpaf and Feed.fm do
Puffpaf co-founded Feed.fm, which puts licensed music inside other companies' products. She is Co-Founder, COO and President. Feed powers music in apps, connected devices, games and VR and AR.
Feed handles the music backend and acts as the ROI provider for customers.
She says licensing kept music out of most apps. Copyright law is opaque, and even after deals with labels you must still integrate, report and pay. Only players with TikTok-sized capital did it.
There is also no global copyright law: "The song that you can use in each country is going to be completely different."
Feed.fm takes on licensing, hosting and streaming so customers don't have to. The package covers a pre-cleared catalog, hosting, metadata and geo filtering, and royalties pass through to the customer. Feed hosts and streams every file, so there are no server costs per stream.
Pricing follows usage, from a thousand to 10 million streams a month. Startups can begin small because royalties are paid per song streamed.
2Puffpaf's case that music lifts retention and conversion
Puffpaf treats music as a retention lever, not a brand extra. Feed.fm reports a 1.7x lift in D90 retention for users who listen to music integrated into an app or connected device.
She says music was long seen as a brand play or a nice to have. The figures come from Feed's consumer research and are self-reported.
Swirkit stopped linking out to Spotify and saw a 2.5x D90 lift. The fitness app used to send users to Spotify or Apple Music playlists. After building music in, users who engaged with it showed a 2.5x D90 retention increase.
Leaving the app is one cost and choosing what to play is a second, mental one. Both lowered the number of users who went on to start workouts.
American Eagle doubled purchase conversion with a simple background music button. Users who listened to music while shopping in the app converted at 2x the rate. Feed worked with American Eagle's analytics team to measure it.
Its customers are younger and like to heart looks while they listen.
She pitches major label hits as a carrot for paid conversion. Putting well-known music in a premium tier gives free users a reason to get over the paywall, on top of the engagement gains.
Music is the hook in short-form and social features. 85% of users say the right music makes them watch short videos to the end, even 20-second clips. 95% say music can make or break a workout.
One suggestion is to let users add music to videos they create in the app.
3How Puffpaf says to add music to an app
She starts with who is listening and what they want. Music is intensely personal, so she gathers psychographic data as well as demographics. The goal then changes by context: escape, a higher heart rate in fitness, or sustained focus in meditation.
Puffpaf finds the behavior points that matter and builds music into them. Rather than a generic player, the pitch is to find where behavior drives results. That might be a background music button, music inside video, or user choice.
Feed pairs AI recommendations with human curators who set the brand's limits. LLMs and recommendation engines handle personalization. Musicologists using rating systems and a proprietary backend set tone, personality and explicitness limits.
Swirkit works with kids and schools, so its content has to stay family-friendly.
She says growth teams need one installation to start testing. Growth marketers have no time for licensing or for building a "mini Spotify" inside the app. Bundling the pieces lets them test with a single install.
Puffpaf runs music as a pilot with clear targets. Feed typically sets retention goals, app usage goals and zero rights violations. Customers' main KPIs are longer sessions and higher retention, such as D90.
Music is a litigious industry, so removing the rights worry is part of the value.
4Where Puffpaf sees music working beyond music apps
She sees music turning products into experiences in fitness, retail, hardware and games. Examples include Peloton, smart speakers, the Escape robot massager, smart mirrors in hotel rooms and Roblox, which she calls a platform for launching artists and discovery.
Puffpaf argues music suits sleep, meditation and wellness apps. She says music reduces cortisol and can trigger dopamine release, and that studies over ten years show it helps people fall asleep and stay asleep. Feed started its own label of functional music built to shift mental and emotional state.
She notes one sleep app that starts music automatically during onboarding, though there is no data on its effect.
How to 2X Your App Retention With This Overlooked Ingredient
Integrating licensed music directly into an app can lift retention, session time and conversion, and a single music partner can remove the licensing and streaming burden. Feed.fm reports a 1.7x lift in D90 retention for users who listen to integrated music, 2.5x for the fitness app Swirkit, and 2x purchase conversion at American Eagle.
Puffpaf co-founded Feed.fm, which puts licensed music inside other companies' products. She is Co-Founder, COO and President. Feed powers music in apps, connected devices, games and VR and AR.
Feed handles the music backend and acts as the ROI provider for customers.
She says licensing kept music out of most apps. Copyright law is opaque, and even after deals with labels you must still integrate, report and pay. Only players with TikTok-sized capital did it.
There is also no global copyright law: "The song that you can use in each country is going to be completely different."
Feed.fm takes on licensing, hosting and streaming so customers don't have to. The package covers a pre-cleared catalog, hosting, metadata and geo filtering, and royalties pass through to the customer. Feed hosts and streams every file, so there are no server costs per stream.
Pricing follows usage, from a thousand to 10 million streams a month. Startups can begin small because royalties are paid per song streamed.
Puffpaf treats music as a retention lever, not a brand extra. Feed.fm reports a 1.7x lift in D90 retention for users who listen to music integrated into an app or connected device.
She says music was long seen as a brand play or a nice to have. The figures come from Feed's consumer research and are self-reported.
Swirkit stopped linking out to Spotify and saw a 2.5x D90 lift. The fitness app used to send users to Spotify or Apple Music playlists. After building music in, users who engaged with it showed a 2.5x D90 retention increase.
Leaving the app is one cost and choosing what to play is a second, mental one. Both lowered the number of users who went on to start workouts.
American Eagle doubled purchase conversion with a simple background music button. Users who listened to music while shopping in the app converted at 2x the rate. Feed worked with American Eagle's analytics team to measure it.
Its customers are younger and like to heart looks while they listen.
She pitches major label hits as a carrot for paid conversion. Putting well-known music in a premium tier gives free users a reason to get over the paywall, on top of the engagement gains.
Music is the hook in short-form and social features. 85% of users say the right music makes them watch short videos to the end, even 20-second clips. 95% say music can make or break a workout.
One suggestion is to let users add music to videos they create in the app.
She starts with who is listening and what they want. Music is intensely personal, so she gathers psychographic data as well as demographics. The goal then changes by context: escape, a higher heart rate in fitness, or sustained focus in meditation.
Puffpaf finds the behavior points that matter and builds music into them. Rather than a generic player, the pitch is to find where behavior drives results. That might be a background music button, music inside video, or user choice.
Feed pairs AI recommendations with human curators who set the brand's limits. LLMs and recommendation engines handle personalization. Musicologists using rating systems and a proprietary backend set tone, personality and explicitness limits.
Swirkit works with kids and schools, so its content has to stay family-friendly.
She says growth teams need one installation to start testing. Growth marketers have no time for licensing or for building a "mini Spotify" inside the app. Bundling the pieces lets them test with a single install.
Puffpaf runs music as a pilot with clear targets. Feed typically sets retention goals, app usage goals and zero rights violations. Customers' main KPIs are longer sessions and higher retention, such as D90.
Music is a litigious industry, so removing the rights worry is part of the value.
She sees music turning products into experiences in fitness, retail, hardware and games. Examples include Peloton, smart speakers, the Escape robot massager, smart mirrors in hotel rooms and Roblox, which she calls a platform for launching artists and discovery.
Puffpaf argues music suits sleep, meditation and wellness apps. She says music reduces cortisol and can trigger dopamine release, and that studies over ten years show it helps people fall asleep and stay asleep. Feed started its own label of functional music built to shift mental and emotional state.
She notes one sleep app that starts music automatically during onboarding, though there is no data on its effect.