MeeMix Opens Beta To Public, Has Much Work Ahead
Roi Carthy
32 comments »
Tel Aviv, Israel based MeeMix, which we first covered in August, is kicking-off the New Year by moving their taste-predicting Internet radio service from closed to open Beta.
Internet radio is already a very crowded space dominated by entrenched startups like Last.fm and Pandora. Smaller players and recent entrants such as SpiralFrog, Jango and Slacker are not increasing the breathing room. MeeMix wants its share of the pie, too, and is keeping its crosshairs focused on the U.S. market and its dominant revenue potential.
MeeMix’s public beta launch is marked by the addition of new features:
- Meeps: Comment-based conversations users can have regarding a song, album or artist.
- Station Home: Every MeeMix station now has a dedicated page allowing users to interact in its context and shape its playlist.
- Mee Feeds: This is basically MeeMix’s version of Facebook’s News Feed. The feed indicates songs favorited, stations rated, friends added, etc.
- Mee Journey: Users can see other members’ public log or “journey” of actions in MeeMix.
- Station Gift: Users can now send other members a station as a gift. The station is then the “property” of the recipient who can customize it without affecting the original station.
- Twitter Integration: Users can update their Twitter accounts with songs they’ve listened to, their favorite stations, etc.
MeeMix claims to have doubled its music catalog, but a search for my personal favorites ‘John Coltrane’ and ‘Miles Davis’ came-up empty. The same searches on Jango and Slacker both came-up positive.
I would like to have seen the addition of “genre” to the channel creation wizard which is still limited to artist and song. A widgetized player also would have been a welcome addition, especially the desktop kind.
In my original post, I hypothesized that licensing its engine could become MeeMix’s core business. Looks like this might not be far fetched as the company says they have been approached by a mobile operator for the purpose of powering a taste-based cellular music streaming service. The company has also shared with me some interesting offline deals on the horizon that should keep MeeMix’s potential on a positive note for 2008. We’ll post another update soon. In the meantime, let us know how you think MeeMix compares to the competition.
Update: MeeMix also sent out an email to some users today saying that they will be discontinuing the service in Israel for now due to licensing issues (Thanks Orli):
I LOVE MIKE ARRINGTON!! HE IS SO SMART. HE WILL ONE DAY OWN THE WORLD. Do you own rubber gloves?
Thanks for the post.
I went to check out MeeMix.com and I thought the site was really cool they have all the music I love.
BTW they do offer to create a station by genre and it rocks, literally!! (check out the graphics)
Meemix seems great! I’m not yet ready to switch from last and pandora but I’m definitely cosidering.
Dom
call me stupid, but why doesn’t the article mention imeem.com as a simlar service - I mean the ‘MeeMix’ name sounds like they’re purposely trying to sound like everyone’s favorite ‘youtube for mp3s’
I’ve received an invitation to Meemix a few weeks ago and I love it ! very cool radio stations!!!
Did the writer check that the website is not available in israel (strange for an israeli startup)? by the way did he really test it?
I don’t know I’m over Pandora. I was always let down by the music they chose for me. I would put in Jimmy Eat World and get Creed, where’s the connection? So far I like what I’m getting from MeeMix. Keep it up!
There is always a chance smaller players get bigger some day, so I wish them the best of luck.
Yair - I did indeed test MeeMix. I’m based in Tel-Aviv and it was running just fine.
However, I received an email a few hours ago stating that “…due to licensing issues MeeMix will not be able to provide its services in Israel for now.”
The email went on to say that they’re working on rectifying the situation.
Email me at roi dot carthy [at] gmail dot com and I’ll make sure they let you know when they’re back online in Israel.
Meemix is unique . Try and you will realize it. Open your own and private station ( as many stations as you want) each with a particular kind of music . After a while you will love it and you will not be able to leave it.
I just started using it and one thing I like about it compared to Pandora - you can rate songs on a scale from -6 to 6, as opposed to just saying whether or not you like it. This may or not be helpful, but it’s a nice concept - oftentimes on Pandora, I just kinda like a song, but am not thrilled by it - how do I differentiate the two?
Compared to last.fm, it’s nice in that the layout seems friendlier and is not as “busy” last.fm just had too much going on.
These are my first impressions (as of five minutes ago), I am sure I wll find things that they are getting woefully wrong.
can someone please suggest theman even dumber name…
Hey people,
Thank you for your kind words and feedback.
We are very excited here at MeeMix, watching new members coming in and launching their personal stations.
Layla, I am glad you found tunes that you love.
Dom, whichever way you go it’s great of you to give us a think.
Bob, keep enjoying the Mix, the more you give, the more you get.
Yair, we took this step when we went live today, Roi tested the site when it was in close beta. We will do our very best to mend this situation as soon as possible.
Ehud, we will! Enjoy the Mix!
Coupons, I agree (: and thanks.
Salo, I feel you, I can’t leave it myself.
Jason, you have hit the nail with this one. It matters whether you like a song just a little or whether you absolutely love it, if you are not excited about a tune or simply can not hear it one second longer. We do take the specific rate you provide and treat it with its inherited perspective. Taste in the Mix is organic and keeps on changing.
Happy New Year,
Gilad
Founder of MeeMix
I’d also like to add that MeeMix actually works in Canada unlike Pandora… It’s an amazing service and I use it almost every day! MeeMix is an absolute must use!
Aydin.
‘can someone please suggest theman even dumber name…’
I think the dumb name is the result of trying to sound imeem.com which has an even less appropriate name for a music site - imeem started out as a social IM + filesharing system (like Pownce) but switched to their current successful model when nobody cared. So I guess it’s a sign of imeem’s popularity that other companies are coming up with soundalike names.
“I assist startups launch new products & services. This includes Beta & General Availability Launch Programs, Blogoshpere Strategy, and Community Marketing. I also cover the Israeli startup scene for TechCrunch.com.”
Customers that paid Roi Carthy to write about them on TC: iMedix, SeeToo, WIX, Shvoong.
#16:
I’m going to bite and reply…
If I were to have chosen to pull any sort of the hankie-pankie you allude to, I would have chosen a blog with a bit less visibility than TechCrunch. Also, it would be astonishingly stupid of me to then plaster the names of these very companies on my personal blog.
TechCrunch has written the book when it comes to disclosure on the blogoshpere. As such, I have in the past and continue to disclose my business relationships with the editors of TechCrunch.
As to the companies I consulted that ended up being reviewed on TechCrunch:
- iMedix: Their PR company contacted TC. The first I came to learn of this was by seeing the post just like any other reader.
- SeeToo: This is a Yossi Vardi startup. Vardi was a TC40 judge and his investment track record is one that should be followed. Also, on the day of the SeeToo post, another Vardi startup called AllofMe was reviewed as well.
- Wix: I had nothing to do with the Wix post and was just as surprised as they were to have seen the Wix post.
- Shvoong: TechCrunch has never reviewed them, nor have I ever brought up the name of the company.
I take my integrity seriously and would be happy to clarify further. If you, or any other TechCrunch reader has any questions on this issue, I urge you to email me at: roi dot carthy [at] gmail dot com.
I’ve been using their service for about two months, dug me an invite..
It’s the most friendly user-wise, has a good selection of hard-rock/heavy metal - which I like, and doesn’t get too technical or mainstream for me,
Keep it up mates and a happy new year to one and all!
I also live in Israel and got a mail from MeeMix. This is an interesting issue. iTunes is not available here either (unless you have a foreign credit card) and no Amazon either.
Are music lovers in small countries going to be stranded with with CDs and P2P as it’s just not worth working out the licensing agreements to sell digital music?
#16, Shvoong has not been reviewed by TC. As the person that retained Roi’s consulting services for Shvoong, I can attest that right away he told us that due to a conflict of interest he can’t write about us in TC or even mention us to other TC writers.
Alright. You may be squeaky clean, but there was no disclosure in the post and your connection to TC is presented as a selling point on your blog. You can’t have it both ways, can you?
Anyway, you are not elected reps and not accountable to your readers, so no drama.
Cheers,
Max
Z3taPr1nts
Max–thank you for emailing me directly and re-posting on this issue.
I just re-edited my about page in order to make this issue crystal clear. You can review it here: http://www.roicarthy.com/about
R.
#20- what’s shvoong? Please contact me.
#21 - what kind of disclosure would you think is appropriate for this post?
has anyone commeting actually visited the site? it has no selection and tons of issues. I prefer slacker.
I guess that by writing:
“I’ve been using their service for about two months, dug me an invite..” I wasn’t clear enough, so let me repeat it:
I’ve been using their service for about two months, dug me an invite..
Yea, been using the site, found nothing lacking with the selection, Issues? I have issues, you seem to have some, and the site also has a few, It’s not perfect yet, but hey - it’s a beta, but I still think it works great.
I don’t know much about indie but my girlfriend is plenty happy with what selection they have when she listens to it at work, and I’m more than satisfied with their selection of thrash metal. Hey, any service that features songs by old-school Italian thrashers Bulldozer is to be respected.
It’s true they don’t have any Jazz yet, but since I don’t listen to that boring stuff I couldn’t care less.
Slacker? C’mon, it gave me shite mainstream metal songs and I could only skip 6 of them so I was forced to listen to a whole bunch of crap. Worse, they’ve restricted their service to the US only so even if I would have wanted to listen to them in the uk I couldn’t…
Stop talking shite and let people decide for themselves mate..
Allan (or is it Allan666?) - you seem to be visiting this comment thread frequently. Why is that?
Who cares about metal? It isn’t that popular. You speak disparagingly about mainstream music but (for the most part) that’s what most people listen to. Hence the word itself: “mainstream”.
For the record, I don’t listen to jazz, either.
Frequently? twice is not that frequent, it’s the same amount of times you did…
Metal isn’t that popular? better read up on your sales stats, is may not sell that much in the UK but in the US it’s been second only to R&B, and unlike the latter - it’s sales have not dwindled in the last few years. check the numbers on bands such as Linkin’ Part, Disturbed, System Of A Down, Tool, Godsmack Etc., and Metallica’s black album is one of top selling albums of all time, AC/DC - Back In Black, The list goes on mate,
It’s not the kind of metal that I like, but saying it isn’t popular is just plain ignorant.
If you’re complaint does not relate to Jazz, why don’t you share your wisdom with the rest of the people here? what was so wrong you went and asked condescendingly if “anyone commenting actually visited the site?”
I’m not a die-hard fan of these guys, and I still use Last.fm too (Pandora and Slacker are off-limit in the UK), but it pisses me off when someone downplays what other people think just because he doesn’t agree with their opinions.
I love meemix, and Gilad seems like a cool guy:). good luck guys, don’t eat too much Humus.