If You Like Pandora or Last.fm, Check Out Jango
Friday, January 18th, 2008
Jango hit the scene in mid 2007 and has soared ever since. The company describes itself as “Social Internet Radio”. Similar to Pandora and Last.fm, Jango allows users to create customized radio stations and discover new artists.
The beauty of the system lies in the social network component. Some of the social features that Jango has integrated include:
- Adding friends and listening to their stations
- Viewing artist suggestions
- Rating artists’ songs
- Discovering “Like-Minds”, i.e. users who have very similar music taste to you
The service is completely free and no dowload is required. The New York-based startup is a legal service and has been licensed by ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SoundExchange.
Revenues are generated via affiliate music sales. Jango has agreements with both Amazon and iTunes. I would imagine that an advertising model may emerge as well.
I tried out the service and I really enjoyed it. It was a nice, refreshing touch. The interface is slick and intuitive. Creating a station and discovering new music is simple. I would encourage everyone to try it out - especially those outside the US. After all, Jango may take over where Pandora stumbled… seems like good timing.
