In episode I of Chris Dixon’s Founder Stories interview with Turntable.fm’s, Billy Chasen, Chasen said most of his investors backed Turntable’s transition from Stickybits to Turntable, with the exception being an investor who simply wasn’t a fan of the music space.
In this episode, Dixon says a lack of understanding – or lack of enthusiasm for music startups has been a common theme in the VC community, but thinks the mindset might be changing thanks to companies like Spotify and Pandora. Chasen agrees – and takes a bit of mystery out of how Turntable navigates music rights before fielding questions about Turntable’s plan to monetize.
In a nutshell, Chasen says securing music rights is “becoming easier and easier” and as long as Turntable operates as “digital radio in the US” the rules they have to follow are pretty defined. He notes, if we were “to go international then [we'd] have to start talking to quite a few more of the rights holders.”
As for growing the company, Chasen tells Dixon he is a fan of an organic approach and says any plans to generate revenue would have to “make the experience better.” Options could include “virtual goods” or anything else that adds “to the experience” but at this stage, solidifying a business model is not the primary focus. He tells Dixon, “the top priority right now is to nail product and fix anything that is not working.”
Make sure to watch the entire video for additional insights and be sure to check out episode I of this interview here.
Past episodes of Founder Stories featuring leaders including Mayor Bloomberg & Fred Wilson are here.
Episode III of this interview is coming up.
Turntable.fm is a project of Seth Goldstein and Billy Chasen, the two guys who brought us Stickybits. Users in each dance room has an avatar and can chat with each other. Users can create their own playlist and get up in the DJ booth to battle it out. Turntable.fm a social music platform that encourages hanging out with people and discovering music. If a DJ is playing a song you like, you can add it to your playlist, buy...
stickybits is the first social object network, connecting the digital and physical worlds. each stickybit is a unique barcode than can be scanned by iPhone or Android devices and then augmented with user generated content. Users can be notified when their codes are scanned, augmented or moved by other people. The company’s first product is a beautifully designed pack of stickers that can be purchased on amazon.com. Users can also choose to print out their own codes at home...
Pandora Radio is an internet radio service, recommendation service, and the custodian of the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on approval or disapproval of individual songs, which Pandora takes into account for future selections. While listening, users are offered the ability to buy the songs or albums at various online retailers. As part of the Music Genome Project, over...
Billy Chasen is the Co-founder of Turntable.fm. Before Turntable.fm., Billy Chasen was the Founder and CEO stickybits.com. Prior to stickybits, Chasen was on the founding team of betaworks, where he created chartbeat.com, a real-time analytics service and firef.ly, a chat service. Chasen has a B.S. in computer science from the University of Michigan. His art website is located at billychasen.com and his blog is anerroroccurredwhileprocessingthisdirective.com
Chris Dixon is a Partner at and co-founder of Founder Collective. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. He previously was the CEO and Co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee, and Hunch, which was acquired by eBay. In addition to his work with Founder’s Collective, Chris is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that...
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