Interview of Jeff Yasuda the CEO founder of blip.fm.
Blip.fm is a website where you can choose any kind of song and play it. It look like a twitter for music, but really it's so much more. for instance you don't have to use twitter to use it and when you like a song it's very easy to share thru your social network ( myspace, facebook, and many many more ). At the begining, I couldn't find the song i was looking for, now no research failed me.
I tryed to contact someone at blip.fm to have some more info about this new kind of web-service. And really i was surprised when i had a fast and dirct answer from Jeff Yasuda.
Here's the interview that i Had the chance to make with him.
Fred2baro : What is Blip.fm ?
Jeff Yasuda : Blip.fm is a Social discovery music, a love child between last.fm and twitter... :-)
Fred2baro :How did you have the idea of blip.fm ?
Jeff Yasuda :Two enginier of FUZZ.com came with the idea of a viral mixtape product, and ask themselves "why would people would use it ? " Because music should be easy. but there's is limited content in a mixed tape so why should I listen to a limited content ?"
so they came up with the blip.fm idea.
Fred2baro : What are the revenue/income ?
Jeff Yasuda : Users buy songs also they're soon going to be able to buy T-shirts, Tickets or Ringtones. There's also an advertising model because we've been approached by marketing company.
F2B> Do you mean it will possible to set his own custom page ?
JY>Artist independant are using blip.fm , and they are showing their songs thru blip.fm.
Sorry if i wasn't clear , i was asking if ppl may be able to set their own page ?
JY>Fred you know i can't say anything but you're very intuitive...
F2B>Do you have been contacted by majors ?
JY>yes.
F2B>Who are you ? Are you all musicians ? how many ppl works directly for blip.fm ?
JY>we are a bigger company fuzz artist inc where bands are able to promote their musics being able to build their own marketing. we call fuzz "a band crm".
I'm coming from a finance background. i started palying guitar at 13 years old in bands.
F2B>What type of music ?
JY>I started playing jazz guitar than in unk bands , rock.. But the band was so bad it didn't try to make a living out of it. we didn't try to be professional, not good enough. :-D
F2B>Do you plan to motivate User Generated Content ?
JY>The user being very active on the site, the average time is 30 min. We know that game mechanics become social currency, one of it is the badge representing the numbers of listeners. There's also the props , a way to giv thumbs up to a DJ.
Very perceptive guy and some
F2B>What is the future of BLIP.fm ?
JY>I have to be super careful , Blip.fm is a Discovery engine for people rapidily growing. thjere's 30+ min per visits ... because music is a totally social experience. we would like to push further digital distribution experience because we think it's a more effective distribution than itunes.
F2B>Do you have issues whith the RIAA ?
JY>like muxtape ? well we're working with the labels right now and in discussion so that's a work in progress because we think it's better to be pro active.
F2B>Do you have an API ?
JY>The api is in process. but couple of smart people found it. it's out there....
F2B>Are you raising money ?
JY>yes but right now i can't say anything.
Thank you very much for you time.
Thanks Fred