Turn Up is a social networking and matchmaking app that connects people based on their “musical DNA” and focuses on music.
Through similar likes in musicians, genres, and music, users can find platonic friends or romantic relationships.
A team focused on music-based social discovery created Turn Up, which is currently run under the developer name Dately, a French startup.
It was developed with the goal of bridging the gap between conventional dating apps and social discovery by utilizing “musical DNA” to help find platonic concert-going friends as well as love matches.
The dating app has grown to have over 2 million users globally since its introduction in late 2019.
Gamification and an emphasis on active user engagement rather than passive streaming analysis set Turn Up apart from rivals.
Who Turn Up Is Suited For
Turn Up is best suited for people who believe that musical compatibility is an essential component of romantic or platonic interactions.
Ideal Users for Turn Up
Active Concert Attendees and Music Lovers: People who regularly attend performances and festivals are the target audience for this dating app.
Finding “concert buddies” to go to local events with is the purpose of its “friends” feature.
Gamified Daters: People who want interactive encounters will find it appealing.
For those who find regular swiping tedious, the “Blind Test” function, which allows users to create and take musical quizzes, is a big lure.
Subculture Members: Turn Up is very well-liked in niche genres like alternative rock, techno, and metal.
It assists users who are uncomfortable using popular dating apps, such as Tinder or Bumble, in locating others who have similar aesthetic and musical preferences.
Friend-Seekers and Singles Alike: It is appropriate for anyone seeking a romance or simply a new social circle based on common “musical DNA” because it features distinct “Dates” and “Friends” modes, unlike strictly romantic apps.
Who Turn Up Isn’t Suited For
Turn Up’s specialized narrow emphasis, smaller user base than major dating apps, and aggressive marketing make it unsuitable for some types of users.
Users in Rural or Remote Areas: Due to the niche nature of the dating app, the majority of its users are found in large cities.
Others who live in less populated areas frequently notice that the “discovery” feed suddenly runs out or matches them with others who live hundreds of miles away.
Budget-Conscious Daters: A paywall prevents access to many essential functions, such as seeing who liked your profile.
Casual or “Top 40” Listeners: The community and algorithm of the dating app thrive on particular, frequently niche musical preferences, e.g., metal, techno, and indie.
The features of the dating app, such as specific music quizzes, seem superfluous or less useful to users who listen to mainstream pop more often than those on general dating apps like Tinder or Hinge.
Those Looking for Instant Matches: Turn Up has a smaller user base than the “big three” dating apps, such as Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble, which have millions of daily active users.
Users frequently go for extended stretches of time without any fresh activity, and matches are irregular.
Users Seeking High-Security/Strict Verification: In contrast to larger dating apps with more reliable verification methods, unverified profiles and bot activity abound, which is similar to many niche dating platforms.
Daters Who Prioritize Particular Filters: There are several basic filters missing, such as the option to filter friends by gender or to strictly filter sexual orientation in all modes.
Demographics of Turn Up
The demographics of Turn Up, which largely favor younger, tech-savvy music lovers, are indicative of its specialization as a music-focused social and dating platform.
Age and Generation
Primary Audience (18–34): Gen Z and Millennials make up Turn Up’s core user base, which is consistent with larger dating app trends where 77% of users are under 35.
Youth Dominance: With an average monthly usage of over 112 hours, users between the ages of 18 and 24 are the most active group on the dating platform.
Growing Older Segment: Although younger users predominate, there is a growing trend of people over 50 joining niche platforms in search of deeper connections, but they are still a minority on popular music apps.
Gender Distribution
Male Majority: Turn Up has a male bias, just like the majority of dating sites.
There are roughly 56% men and 39% women.
Platform Preferences: Turn Up’s emphasis on “Musical DNA” over solely visual swiping is in line with women’s growing preference for dating apps that emphasize safety and personality-based matchmaking in the general market.
Geographic and Interest Profile
Urban Concentration: Large US and European cities with thriving local music festivals and concert scenes have the densest user bases.
Subculture Alignment: The dating app is especially well-liked by fans of alternative music genres like indie, techno, and metal, who use it to connect with other members of their particular subcultures.
Socioeconomic Status: Because they are the group most prepared to pay for premium subscriptions, high-income daters on the matchmaking dating app are able to pay for features that low-income daters can’t afford, such as access to sophisticated matching and the “Blind Test.”
Behavioral Trends
Social Seekers: Rather than using the app only for dating, a sizable fraction of this group uses it mostly for platonic interactions, such as finding “concert buddies.”
Gamified Interactions: Users are shifting from passive profile browsing to active, interest-based engagement with the app’s AI-driven features and interactive music quizzes.
Creating a Profile on Turn Up
Turn Up requires you to develop a “Musical DNA” identity to construct a profile.
This identity is the basis for both the interactive games and the matching algorithm.
1. Initial Configuration and Verification
Download and Register: Do this through The Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
Verification: You can register using a Google account, Apple ID, or phone number.
To minimize bot accounts, the dating service usually requires a mobile number for two-factor authentication.
2. Developing Your “Musical DNA”
This is the basis of your profile and controls who appears in your feed:
Choose Your Genres: You will select your preferred musical genres, such as jazz, metal, indie, or techno.
Favorite Artists: You look for and include specific artists that you adore.
On your profile, these show up as tags.
The “Anthem”: Like other apps, you can select a single song that best captures your mood right now.
Importing Data: You can expedite this process by synchronizing your Apple Music or Spotify accounts so that your favorite songs and artists are automatically pulled.
3. Setting Your Goals
Turn Up lets you switch between two different modes or use both:
Date Mode: For romantic relationships.
Friends Mode: Especially for locating “concert buddies” or folks with whom to have platonic music discussions.
4. Creating Your “Blind Test” (Gamification)
You can make a music quiz for potential matches to differentiate yourself:
You choose a set of artist questions or song excerpts on the dating app.
Before, or during, the matching process, other users must “pass” your test to demonstrate their musical expertise or compatibility.
To make sure their matches have a similar degree of “music geek” status, many users utilize this as their main criteria.
5. Typical Profile Components
Photos: Although a whole gallery is advised for increased engagement, you must post at least one clear photo.
Bio & Prompts: To help you develop your personality beyond merely a list of bands, the dating app offers music-specific prompts, such as “My first concert was…” and “The album I’d take to a desert island…”
Deal-Breakers: To help the algorithm avoid mismatched tastes, you can indicate “unpopular opinions” or genres that you simply detest.
How the Matching Algorithm Works
Turn Up’s matching algorithm determines compatibility by using integrated streaming history, static user data, and active gamification.
Musical DNA Synthesis: Your manually chosen or imported artists, songs, and genres are analyzed by the main engine.
Matches with a high “overlap percentage” in their musical DNA are given priority on the matchmaking app.
Integrated Streaming Data: To determine real-time compatibility, the algorithm analyzes actual listening patterns, such as frequently played songs and recently found artists, by syncing with Spotify or Apple Music.
This goes beyond static likes.
Gamified Validation (Blind Tests): The system rates compatibility based on how well you fare on other users’ “Blind Tests” (musical quizzes).
The algorithm is informed that you have the “musical power” and common knowledge to maintain a connection if you pass the test for a possible match.
Behavioral & Engagement Metrics: The system promotes active users, just like a lot of dating apps.
To match you with current users rather than abandoned accounts, it gives preference to profiles with high message-response rates and frequent app logins.
Location & Proximity: Users can manually widen these parameters if they are in less populated areas, however the system leverages geolocation to quickly find local people who share your likes.
Contextual Filtering: By differentiating between “Dates” and “Friends” modes, it modifies the pool of prospective matches according to whether you are seeking platonic concert companionship or romantic compatibility.
Major Factors Ranked by Algorithm Weight
Direct Artist/Genre Overlap: The best indicator for early discovery is direct artist/genre overlap.
Blind Test Interaction: You become more visible to users when you successfully complete their quiz on the online dating platform.
Active Engagement: How frequently people see your profile depends on your swipe-to-match ratio and messaging depth.
Streaming Recency: Listening to a specific artist or “Anthem” on a regular basis will momentarily increase the number of matches who are also listening to that artist.
Pros and Cons of Turn Up
Pros of Turn Up
Turn Up is one of the most engaging music-dating websites.
Its ability to promote deeper connections through common interests rather than surface-level swiping is one of its main advantages.
Key Pros of Using Turn Up
Depth of Compatibility: Unlike popular dating apps, Turn Up matches you based on “Musical DNA.”
Because it provides an immediate, important point of agreement and an inherent discussion starter, this is often more successful than typical bios.
Unique Gamification (Blind Tests): The “Blind Test” feature sets the dating app apart by making the matching process fun.
These musical tests allow you to “prove” your fandom while simultaneously acting as a natural icebreaker and easing the awkwardness of the first conversation.
Dual-Purpose Networking: The inclusion of a specific “Friends” mode is a major benefit.
It’s a flexible social tool for music lovers that lets users locate platonic “concert buddies” or festival groups without the stress of courting.
Smooth Music Integration: The dating app keeps up with your real-time listening habits by synchronizing with Spotify or Apple Music.
This guarantees that, without the need for manual adjustments, your profile accurately represents your current preferences.
Robust Subculture Communities: Niche genres find refuge on the dating app.
Turn Up makes it far simpler to identify your “tribe” than a general-purpose app if you are interested in certain scenes like Industrial Techno, Deathcore, or Lo-fi.
Event-Based Discovery: By highlighting individuals who are interested in similar upcoming festivals or local performances, the app facilitates organic date planning around a common activity.
Direct Message Options: Turn Up provides methods to connect through quiz answers or certain musical exchanges, which can feel more natural than apps that need a mutual swipe before any contact.
Cons of Turn Up
Significant drawbacks to Turn Up primarily centers on its high costs and small user community outside major cities.
Key Cons of Turn Up
High Costs & Aggressive Paywalls: A lot of necessary functionality are restricted by pricey memberships.
This makes Turn Up seem like a “pay-to-play” dating platform, given the increasing costs of its subscription tiers, especially at “Platinum” levels.
Restricted User Base in Non-Urban Areas: Because it is a niche app, its users are mostly found in large cities.
Users in smaller cities or rural areas frequently have to set distance filters as high as 100–800 miles to view any active profiles, or their discovery feed quickly becomes empty.
Bot Activity & Fake Profiles: Bots and fake accounts are becoming more frequent.
There are so-called “ghost” profiles, which seem to like you but never appear in your swipe deck, as a technique designed to promote premium memberships.
Inadequate Gender and Intent Filtering: There is an absence of basic filtering features on the app.
For example, users in “Friends” mode are not always able to filter by gender, which can be annoying for anyone looking for social circles or friendships that are exclusively same-sex.
Outdated Interface & Technical Issues: In comparison to major competitors, some users believe the layout to be “outdated” or clumsy.
Even with a premium membership, the inability to “undo” inadvertent swipes and challenges navigating the app are common technical issues.
Abandoned Profiles: Turn Up frequently shows profiles that have been abandoned for months, resulting in matches that never respond, in contrast to larger dating apps that conceal inactive users.
Free Features on Turn Up
Turn Up is a “freemium” app.
The basic music-matching experience is free, but some paid features, like seeing exactly who liked you, are hidden behind a paywall.
Core Free Features on Turn Up
Profile Customization: Users can freely create their “Musical DNA” by manually choosing their preferred musicians, songs, and genres or by utilizing the built-in sync between Spotify and Apple Music.
Mode Selection: Depending on your present social objectives, you can freely choose between the “Dates” and “Friends” modes.
Discovery & Swiping: Based on musical compatibility, you can “like” (swipe right) or “dislike” (swipe left) neighboring profiles in the main discovery stream.
Unlimited Blind Tests: Creating and taking an infinite number of music-based tests (Blind Tests) to engage with other users is a noteworthy free feature.
Direct Interaction: Free users can start a conversation by sending a restricted number of direct messages or by taking another user’s Blind Test on the matchmaking platform.
Chatting: The chatting feature is usually free and unlimited once a mutual match has been created (both users have liked each other).
Music-Oriented Prompts: The app offers free prompts like “a song for a first date” or “top three rappers from the 2000s” to assist users in filling up their profiles.
Paid Features on Turn Up
Turn Up offers sophisticated matching, visibility, and engagement options through a multi-tiered subscription model and individual in-app purchases.
Primary Paid Features
Find Your Admirers: The ability to unblur and see precisely who liked your profile without having to wait to view them in the discovery feed is the most sought-after premium feature.
Priority Visibility: Paid users have a far higher chance of being viewed and matched by others because they are positioned higher in the matchmaking queue.
Priority Interactions: To guarantee that their profile or discussion starter shows up at the top of the recipient’s notifications, users on the dating app can buy packs of priority likes and priority messages.
Profile Boosts: Enables users to “boost” their profile for a predetermined amount of time (for example, 24 hours), making them a top recommendation for all users in the vicinity.
Message Attachments: Often referred to as “notes” or “instant messages,” this feature allows messages to be sent with a “like” before a mutual match is formed on the internet matchmaking app.
Unlimited Browsing: Enables ongoing profile exploration by eliminating the daily “swiping” restrictions placed on free accounts.
Advanced Filtering: The ability to narrow matches by more precise age windows or musical subgenres, for example.
Pricing on Turn Up
Turn Up has several subscription tiers and a “freemium” business strategy.
Pricing generally follows the following structure, albeit it varies by location and platform (iOS vs. Android):
Subscription Tiers
Weekly Pass: $11.99.
Standard Monthly (Turn Up +): $14.99 to $18.49 a month.
Platinum Monthly: The premium plan normally costs between $19.99 and $24.99 a month.
Long-Term Discounts: Multi-month packages offer substantial savings, such as six-month contracts that average about $19.93 per month, even if rates can approach $39.99 for a single month on some stores.
Individual A-la-Carte Purchases
Users on the matchmaking service can purchase “Priority” items to boost visibility without a full subscription:
Priority Likes:
3-pack: $4.99.
30-pack: $17.99.
Priority Messages:
3-pack: $5.99.
30-pack: $20.99.
24-Hour Profile Boost: $5.99.
Note on Auto-Renewal: Unless you deactivate it in your device’s settings, all premium memberships are invoiced through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and will automatically renew 24 hours before the current term expires.
Safety and Security
To keep music lovers secure, Turn Up uses both community-focused reporting methods and basic digital security procedures.
However, it throws a great deal of personal safety responsibility on the user, just like many niche networks.
Data & Privacy Protections
Encryption in Transit: To lower the possibility of third-party interception, the matchmaking platform encrypts your data as it travels between your device and its servers.
Data Deletion Requests: Users are entitled to seek the total erasure of their personal data from the platform’s records in accordance with contemporary privacy regulations (like GDPR).
Data Collection Limits: Although the app gathers location, personal information, and device identifiers to operate, it makes it clear that it does not sell this personal information to outside parties.
Automated Scanning: In order to proactively detect and eliminate fraudulent accounts or damaging information, the dating platform employs automated systems to scan profiles for “red-flag” language and imagery.
Community Safety Tools
Blocking and Reporting: Users can report suspicious, harassing, or unlawful activity to the support team for further inquiry, or they can immediately block another user to stop future interactions.
Internal Messaging: Instead of switching to external networks, like WhatsApp or Instagram, too soon, Turn Up advises users to stick with its built-in messaging system.
This keeps interactions subject to the app’s monitoring and reporting systems.
Authenticity Checks: The online dating app allows users to link accounts like Spotify or Apple Music, which can serve as an informal secondary verification of a match’s identity and musical interests.
Customer Support
The Turn Up music dating app provides customer service that is mostly managed online.
The following techniques should be used by users who need help with billing, technical problems, or account recovery:
Principal Modes of Contact
Email Support: Contact@turn-up.app is the official support email for issues pertaining to the app.
For account identification and troubleshooting, this is the most efficient way to contact Dately’s development staff.
In-App Reporting: Through the app’s reporting tool, users can report certain profiles for fraud or improper behavior.
App Store & Google Play Feedback: Reviews on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store are frequently addressed by the creators.
The support staff frequently responds directly when you leave a thorough evaluation.
Subscription & Billing Support
Turn Up uses third-party payment processors, so certain billing concerns should be resolved via the relevant platform:
iOS Users: Choose “Report a Problem” from your purchase history to manage subscriptions and obtain refunds through Apple Support.
Android Users: Use the Google Play Store account settings to control payments and cancellations.
Recommendation
Turn Up is a social networking and dating app connecting users according to their musical preferences, syncing them with Spotify or Apple Music.
Starting a discussion over a favorite record is far simpler than saying “hey.”
This instantly filters for partnerships where music is a “dealbreaker” for you.
By simply looking through profiles, you can discover new artists.
That said, you should still consider some of its drawbacks, such as a smaller pool of users compared to giants like Tinder or Bumble.
This means that living in a rural area makes it that much harder to find matches on the matchmaking app.
Additionally, every now and then, the Spotify integration can be a bit glitchy.
As long as none of these drawbacks are non-negotiables, Turn Up is where you will find like-minded music lovers.