A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of television broadcasting, radio broadcasting and personal computers.
Rate Your Music is an online encyclopedia of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also features community-based charts that track highest-rated releases.
Ultimate Guitar, also known as Ultimate-Guitar.com or simply UG, is an online platform for guitarists and musicians. Its website and mobile application provides guitar tablature catalogues and chord sheets. UG's platform also includes video courses, reviews of music and equipment, interviews with notable musicians and forums. It was started on October 9, 1998, by Eugeny Naidenov. Since 2008, Ultimate Guitar operates from San Francisco, US, with its platform available in most countries. As of December 2021, the site and mobile app contain 1,600,000 tabs and chords for over 900,000 songs from over 115,000 artists. The UG app has been downloaded more than 53,000,000 times.
Amie Street was an indie online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island. The site was notable for its demand-based pricing. The company was later moved to Long Island City in Queens, New York. In late 2010, the site was sold to Amazon who redirected customers to their own website.
Vimeo, Inc. is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as a service (SaaS). They derive revenue by providing subscription plans for businesses and content creators. Vimeo provides its subscribers with tools for video creation, editing, and broadcasting, enterprise software solutions, as well as the means for video professionals to connect with clients and other professionals. As of December 2021, the site has 260 million users, with around 1.6 million subscribers to its services.
Sellaband was a music website that allowed artists to raise the money from their fans and the SellaBand community in order to record a professional album. Sellaband used the mechanisms of crowdfunding and was to be seen as a Direct-to-Fan/fan-funded music platform utilising a Threshold Pledge System / Provision Point Mechanism. It was set up by Johan Vosmeijer, Pim Betist, and Dagmar Heijmans in August 2006. Its offices used to be located in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but it was originally incorporated in Bocholt, Germany.
The online service imeem was a social media website where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos. It operated from 2003 until 2009 when it was shut down after being acquired by MySpace.
Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator created by Anthony Volodkin.
Amazon Music is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.
ReverbNation.com is a website, launched in 2006, that focuses on the independent music industry. It aims to provide a central site for musicians, producers, and venues to collaborate and communicate. ReverbNation was bought for an undisclosed sum by music creation platform, BandLab, in November 2021.
Playlist.com is a domain name that formerly hosted a commercial-free Internet radio service called Playlist, which had approximately 60 million users. The domain is owned by Playlist Media, which operates under the brand Playlist. As of mid-2017, the website lists only Jam Music, a streaming service and iOS app available in the United States.
iVideosongs, owned by Songmaster Studios Education LLC, is an online music instruction service where original artists show how to play the songs they have written and performed. The site also has song instruction from studio musicians and from professional music instructors. The company slogan is "We'll show you how to play complete songs accurately."
Francis and the Lights is an American pop project of Francis Farewell Starlite. The term "and the Lights" refers both to the lights on a stage and pixels on a computer screen. Francis Farewell Starlite is an American musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is primarily a vocalist and pianist, and is often credited by the Francis and the Lights name for his solo work. He is a frequent collaborator of multiple artists and producers, including Kanye West, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Benny Blanco, Cashmere Cat, Chance the Rapper, Nico Segal, Frank Ocean and Banks.
Grooveshark was a web-based music streaming service owned and operated by Escape Media Group in the United States. Users could upload digital audio files, which could then be streamed and organized in playlists. The Grooveshark website had a search engine, music streaming features, and a music recommendation system.
Kerchoonz was a social networking website founded in April 2005 and launched live in June 2008. Kerchoonz has been described as "A modern Record Deal" for bands and artists. Music fans have access to music for free and the bands get paid for each stream listened to via an advertising share that they receive from the site. Bands can also sell their music directly from their profile player and set the price for their own download sales. Users can create free accounts in the following categories: Fan, Artist, Record Label, DJ, Industry Pro or Writer were connected to labels, managers, publishers, venues, vendors, promotors and more. It was the first company in the world that paid musicians for downloads and streams of their music via advertising revenue and via a subscription model. Kerchoonz was a global marketplace that connected bands and artists to record labels, managers, venues, vendors and offered an online shop for bands, allowing bands to sell their digital downloads and their physical CDs, T-shirts and gear through their own social networking profile on the site as well as in K-Ching, an on-line direct sale and auction marketplace. Kerchoonz was monetized via a subscription model, advertising model and commissions on transactions within the marketplace. Regular non-artist members can also sell used and new items on K-Ching and set up a store on their Kerchoonz profile. First online digital company that paid artist for streams
Indaba Music is a web-based company that provides a music collaboration environment for musicians: "a place to build a profile, promote their tunes and collaborate with other musicians" as well as enter opportunities like remixing and songwriting contests with popular artists.
Deepcut.fm, formerly known as Turntable.fm, is a social media website that allows users to collaboratively stream music. The website was co-founded by Billy Chasen and Seth Goldstein in January 2011 after deciding their previous product, Stickybits, was not a viable business. The service allowed users to create "rooms," which other users could join. Designated users, so-called "DJs," chose songs to be played to everyone in that room, while all users were able to talk with one another through a text interface. The service opened to the public in May 2011, and by late June had already reached 140,000 active users. The company used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to license the music that was played on the website; because of this, only individuals from the United States were allowed to use the service. The site shut down in December 2013, but was revived in March 2021.
8tracks.com is an internet radio and social networking website revolving around the concept of streaming user-curated playlists consisting of at least 8 tracks. Users create free accounts and can browse the site and listen to other user-created mixes, as well as create their mixes. The site also has a subscription-based service, 8tracks Plus, although this is currently only available to listeners based in the United States and Canada.
Multiply was a social networking service with an emphasis on allowing users to share media – such as photos, videos and blog entries – with their "real-world" network. The website was launched in March 2004 and was privately held with backing by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Point Judith Capital, Transcosmos, and private investors. Multiply had over 11 million registered users. The company was headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida but moved to Jakarta, Indonesia early in 2012 and recently announced intentions to switch to e-commerce, dropping the social networking aspect entirely. Quantcast estimates Multiply had 2.47 million monthly U.S. unique visitors at their peak on July 30, 2012.
SoundayMusic is a geosocial networking mobile music streaming app that enables users to listen to and track the music their friends and neighbors are playing in real time. The service provides over 32 million tracks and allows users to create "music stations" choosing between a mix of up to three artists, or choosing a music genre. In the free version users can create up to 10 personalized stations, look at the stations that are being played nearby in real time, and interact with other users through instant chat. The paid, premium subscription removes advertisements and allows users to create an unlimited number of stations. It was launched in 2009> by Soundtracker, and as of December 2014 the service had 1.3 million registered users. Soundtracker is available for iOS App Store, Android Google Play, Windows Phone Store, Windows Store, Google Glass, BlackBerry World, Samsung Apps, Amazon Appstore, Nook, and Samsung Smart TV, in 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese Simplified, Japanese, Korean and Russian. Soundtracker is a registered trademark.
