For those who haven't used the new online music player Turntable.fm...you're missing out! Turntable.fm is Pandora meets throwback chat room meets DJ Hero game mechanics. The platform allows music listeners to join themed "rooms" in order to "play music together," as five DJs take turns selecting songs that the listeners vote and comment on. DJs collect points based on the quality of the songs as voted by the listeners and songs are skipped if too many people vote "Lame." This is the ultimate blend of social and music as First Round Capital Principal, Charlie O'Donnell, put it, "Some services just tell you what your friends are listening to--the digital data exhaust of an inherently unsocial experience. You listen to music on your own, and your data is broadcasted to your graph." Turntable.fm is a tremendous tool for discovering new music while "socializing" with users who share a similar taste in music. The site launched in late May and is still in Beta but there are some potential UI/UX changes that could be made to improve the user experience with this exciting app:
6.15.2011
Sorry for the Neglect
Its finally time to start blogging again now that I'm back from the wedding/honeymoon and our post wedding errands are complete. The extended break from my computer and phone was a refreshing opportunity to lift my head up from what had been two solid months of reading the Mashable, Techcrunch, and Term Sheet dailies which helped fill my inbox to the tune of 650 unread emails (I think I've finally sifted through and responded to the important ones, sorry for the delay). Time to kick the job search into overdrive while commenting on the companies that have been making news lately.
The most significant tech news from two weeks ago was Groupon's IPO announcement which obviously drew coverage from the WSJ, Economist, and the like of the impending tech bubble. This was a tremendous birthday present for someone that doubts the staying power of Groupon's business model and who has been preparing a a lengthier blog about the economics of Deal Sites. This task should be much easier now that Groupon has filed with the SEC and opened the Pandora box that was their operating information.
That brings me to this weeks news which will clearly be Pandora's first day of trading on the NYSE (full dislcousre: I'm listening to Pandora while posting). The stock rose as high as $26 in early morning trading but spent the rest of the day returning to earth at a close of $17.42. This is a gain of 8.88% for those who bought at the list price but far below the $20 price that many institutional investors paid when the markets opened. Perhaps All Things D was a little premature in declaring that "Pandora has pulled a LinkedIn," which experienced opening day gains of 109% back in May. If LinkedIn's performance to date (Down 39.2% from its high of $122.7) is any indication of Pandora's performance in the coming weeks then I'll be considering a short sale as it will likely be in the pink slips come July.
Disclosure - I currently do not have any positions in LNKD or P.
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