MixApp is the only social music service that's actually social.
OK, that's an obnoxious thing to say. But really, how many times do you hear about a new music service that claims to be all about "social" — and then it turns out that, great as their service might be, their hot social feature is a facebook/tweet/share-this widget?
We built MixApp to do the one thing that we really wanted to do, and that no other service offers: actually listen to music with our friends.
Because there's something special about hearing the same thing at the same time. And "dude, check out this link" just doesn't cut it.
This isn't to take away from the many great companies (esp. startups) with cool music listening services. But let's look at the primary selling points of the main players:
- Music discovery, which could be driven by algorithms based on what you listen to (Pandora, Last.fm), blogs (Hype Machine), user ratings (theSixtyOne), social networks (We Are Hunted), web pages you visit (ExtensionFM).
- On-demand access to music (Rdio, Grooveshark, MOG, spotify, Rhapsody, Deezer, Jamendo, Guvera, YouTube/VEVO, Muziic, and of course iTunes.)
- Building and sharing playlists (offered by most of the above, plus others that focus specifically on playlists, e.g. 8tracks).
(Yes, I've left out a lot of great companies that focus on other music areas, e.g. concert listings, artist services, music creation, games, analytics.)
So what's missing? Yeah, it's the social — not just sending around links, not just recommending music, not just reading about our friends — what's missing is actually being with our friends.
That's what MixApp brings to the table: it's a genuinely social music experience.
To be complete: there are a few other startups that are working on simultaneous experiences, largely focused on video: synchTube, Qlipso, YouTubeSocial. But I just spent my workday listening to mp3s of live DJ sets, so you know where my heart lives.