Soundrop brings music ‘listening rooms’ to Facebook

Social music service Soundrop announced this morning that it has launched listening rooms on Facebook, which means that artists — and fans — can create social music spaces where they can listen to music together, chat, and vote on what they want to hear next.

A Soundrop room on Facebook is a page running the app, which streams music and video from YouTube or Vevo at the top, provides for comments and chatting under the video, and features a social playlist with songs that people can upvote, promoting them to earlier spots.

Above: A Soundrop listening room on Facebook

Image Credit: John Koetsier

It sometimes seems as if a million startups focused on music and social, but I like this one. Soundrop streamed more than 500 million tracks last year as an app on Spotify, so it’s not exactly unknown and untested, and the app seems simple, fun, and useful. Soundrop rooms on Facebook are the exact same as on Spotify: Comments, votes, and songs playing are synced on both platforms.

Soundrop is focused on the needs of artists, saying “We help artists and labels accelerate their traffic and engagement” on its partners page. That’s smart, because as MySpace discovered an Internet age ago, fans follow where bands lead.

CEO Inge Andre Sandvik referenced that in a statement, while also acknowledging Facebook’s status as the world’s leading social network. “We’re excited to make Soundrop available in the main place where artists connect with their fans,” he said.

The company is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, but has offices in New York, L.A., and London. You can try the app at multiple musicians’ Facebook pages, including Matisyahu, Delphic, or Owl City. Or, continuing the Scandinavian theme, even ABBA.

photo credit: crsan – christianholmer.com via photopin cc