Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
ADMIT it. Your musical taste is largely influenced by friends or at least people close to you. And you often want to share it with everyone or at least to those who share your taste. That is essentially the idea behind Blip.fm.
"Music discovery is social," says Jeff Yasuda, CEO and co-founder of Blip.fm, a tab service originally under the Fuzz.com website. (Actually, Yasuda’s card reads Founder and CEO of Fuzz Artists Inc.,' which is an independent music label).
Calling himself a former "bean counter" (read Investment Banker) and a VC (venture capitalist), Yasuda and his co-founder Brian Venneman set up Blip.fm out of their love for music -- of course, they believe there’s business in the social aspect of music discovery now that you have the Internet as your platform.
"I’ve been in a band since I was 13 years old," says Yasuda as we talked in his music-filled room that he calls his office. Everywhere you look, there is music. There’s an exclusive photo of Pearl Jam’s frontman Eddie Vedder wearing a wig and a rather funny and amusing photo of Yasuda and his funky band and a lone fan listening.
Yasuda has a vast collection of music posters of various concerts and known musicians, which gives away his own musical taste. Of course, his first guitar was hanging on one wall, reminding him about his roots. He describes Blip.fm and Fuzz as his second baby -- the first is a cute child whose photos are also on his desk.
Amid existing online social music services like Last.fm, Pandora, IMEEM, MySpace, Blip.fm launched sometime in July 2008, while Fuzz.com went live as early as March 2007, according to Yasuda.
Blip.fm actually was an idea that emerged during a smoke break, Fuzz and Blip.fm software engineer Ian White reveals. As one of the co-founders was already into Twitter (now a popular micro-blogging service) and music, it hit them: why not mash all these ideas and come up with a new one.
"It was initially launched as a tab in Fuzz.com. But now it’s totally independent," says Yasuda referring to Blip.fm.
Inspired by the “What are you doing?” question on Twitter, Blip.fm asks people, “What are you listening to?” Just like Twitter, people can post up to 140 characters of text. But instead of the usual, sometimes cryptic, messages, Blip.fm includes streaming music attached to that message. The message could be anything from a shoutout to, er, cryptic messages from fellow music lovers. People have the choice to tune in to what you’re listening or create their own playlist and invite you and other people to listen.
Like other online social music services, Blip.fm is powered by the people, the users, the music lovers – your "trusted sources" for musical nourishment, as Yasuda puts it. So it all points back to the human element that makes music discovery a social activity.
But there’s more: Why can’t you and I be the DJ for once? Since Blip.fm was created as also an online streaming music service, the co-founders are giving everyone a chance to become the "tastemakers." For once, you and I can be the cool DJ, spinning the records online.
Finally, there’s the element of immediacy. Simply put, Blip.fm is living in the "Now."
"Why can’t I share my music now? And tell them why they should listen, now," Yasuda says.
How does Blip.fm work?
Well, it’s user-generated. It is powered mostly by third-party music that the service finds online (or music people search and find through Blip.fm). The service itself does not store music except those music Blip.fm or Fuzz owns copyright. So don’t be surprised that you will sometimes stumble upon music that sucks because they’re incomplete or just barely audible. But that's really rare.
How many people are tuned in to Blip.fm? Yasuda declines to disclose this detail but says users spend an average of 30 minutes listening to music from Blip.fm, a big leap from an average of 20 minutes when it was unveiled.
Why are people spending that much time on Blip.fm?
Yasuda says they have devised a way to keep people from tuning out. They have created a badge system for top DJs, while they also have introduced a reward system called "props," which people can earn and give to other people whom they find interesting. It’s like a virtual pat on the back of people who share your taste.
“That makes our service a lot of more interesting,” Yasuda admits.
Blip.fm has also built a widget, an instant code which people can embed into their own blogs or whatnot to showcase their "blips."
In a few weeks, Blip.fm will be on Facebook, according to Yasuda. Currently, Blip.fm works with social network services like AudioScrobble, Twitter, Pownce, Haiku, Last.fm, Friendfeed, among others. So you can spread your musical taste through this other social networks.
Now, how does Blip.fm make money?
Yasuda says they have "referral links" for MP3 music bought through their service. Blip.fm gets a cut from MP3 music sold through their service. They will also soon launch other revenue-generating services like "buy ticket" or "buy t-shirts" through the service. Of course, they also have the usual online advertising as another source of revenues.
At this time, Yasuda says that Blip.fm has been a surprise to the co-founders since it was launched because it is gaining more listeners from different parts of the world.
“We believe and play on the belief that music is social,” Yasuda adds.
We hear you, Jeff.
ADMIT it. Your musical taste is largely influenced by friends or at least people close to you. And you often want to share it with everyone or at least to those who share your taste. That is essentially the idea behind Blip.fm.
"Music discovery is social," says Jeff Yasuda, CEO and co-founder of Blip.fm, a tab service originally under the Fuzz.com website. (Actually, Yasuda’s card reads Founder and CEO of Fuzz Artists Inc.,' which is an independent music label).
Calling himself a former "bean counter" (read Investment Banker) and a VC (venture capitalist), Yasuda and his co-founder Brian Venneman set up Blip.fm out of their love for music -- of course, they believe there’s business in the social aspect of music discovery now that you have the Internet as your platform.
"I’ve been in a band since I was 13 years old," says Yasuda as we talked in his music-filled room that he calls his office. Everywhere you look, there is music. There’s an exclusive photo of Pearl Jam’s frontman Eddie Vedder wearing a wig and a rather funny and amusing photo of Yasuda and his funky band and a lone fan listening.
Yasuda has a vast collection of music posters of various concerts and known musicians, which gives away his own musical taste. Of course, his first guitar was hanging on one wall, reminding him about his roots. He describes Blip.fm and Fuzz as his second baby -- the first is a cute child whose photos are also on his desk.
Amid existing online social music services like Last.fm, Pandora, IMEEM, MySpace, Blip.fm launched sometime in July 2008, while Fuzz.com went live as early as March 2007, according to Yasuda.
Blip.fm actually was an idea that emerged during a smoke break, Fuzz and Blip.fm software engineer Ian White reveals. As one of the co-founders was already into Twitter (now a popular micro-blogging service) and music, it hit them: why not mash all these ideas and come up with a new one.
"It was initially launched as a tab in Fuzz.com. But now it’s totally independent," says Yasuda referring to Blip.fm.
Inspired by the “What are you doing?” question on Twitter, Blip.fm asks people, “What are you listening to?” Just like Twitter, people can post up to 140 characters of text. But instead of the usual, sometimes cryptic, messages, Blip.fm includes streaming music attached to that message. The message could be anything from a shoutout to, er, cryptic messages from fellow music lovers. People have the choice to tune in to what you’re listening or create their own playlist and invite you and other people to listen.
Like other online social music services, Blip.fm is powered by the people, the users, the music lovers – your "trusted sources" for musical nourishment, as Yasuda puts it. So it all points back to the human element that makes music discovery a social activity.
But there’s more: Why can’t you and I be the DJ for once? Since Blip.fm was created as also an online streaming music service, the co-founders are giving everyone a chance to become the "tastemakers." For once, you and I can be the cool DJ, spinning the records online.
Finally, there’s the element of immediacy. Simply put, Blip.fm is living in the "Now."
"Why can’t I share my music now? And tell them why they should listen, now," Yasuda says.
How does Blip.fm work?
Well, it’s user-generated. It is powered mostly by third-party music that the service finds online (or music people search and find through Blip.fm). The service itself does not store music except those music Blip.fm or Fuzz owns copyright. So don’t be surprised that you will sometimes stumble upon music that sucks because they’re incomplete or just barely audible. But that's really rare.
How many people are tuned in to Blip.fm? Yasuda declines to disclose this detail but says users spend an average of 30 minutes listening to music from Blip.fm, a big leap from an average of 20 minutes when it was unveiled.
Why are people spending that much time on Blip.fm?
Yasuda says they have devised a way to keep people from tuning out. They have created a badge system for top DJs, while they also have introduced a reward system called "props," which people can earn and give to other people whom they find interesting. It’s like a virtual pat on the back of people who share your taste.
“That makes our service a lot of more interesting,” Yasuda admits.
Blip.fm has also built a widget, an instant code which people can embed into their own blogs or whatnot to showcase their "blips."
In a few weeks, Blip.fm will be on Facebook, according to Yasuda. Currently, Blip.fm works with social network services like AudioScrobble, Twitter, Pownce, Haiku, Last.fm, Friendfeed, among others. So you can spread your musical taste through this other social networks.
Now, how does Blip.fm make money?
Yasuda says they have "referral links" for MP3 music bought through their service. Blip.fm gets a cut from MP3 music sold through their service. They will also soon launch other revenue-generating services like "buy ticket" or "buy t-shirts" through the service. Of course, they also have the usual online advertising as another source of revenues.
At this time, Yasuda says that Blip.fm has been a surprise to the co-founders since it was launched because it is gaining more listeners from different parts of the world.
“We believe and play on the belief that music is social,” Yasuda adds.
We hear you, Jeff.
