Splash.FM Thrives On In-Group Influence

Yesterday at 12pm EDT, just three months after its Private Beta launch, Splash.FM—a social music discovery platform that measures your musical influence—officially launched in Public Beta, making the once exclusive platform available to the masses.

Splash.FM is a site that allows you to create a profile, follow your friends and other influencers, browse for songs, and “Splash” the ones you love. Billboard Magazine called Splash.FM “a Twitter for music discovery.” In a quick snapshot, users are able to view song charts of which tracks are trending amongst their friends and on the site overall, as well as what has been “splashed” most recently. Best of all, users get credit where credit is due; users are assigned a “Splash Score” (from 0-99), a ranking system that visibly rewards users for discovering good music early.

Splash co-founder Jason Fiedler explained the Splash score to Janko Roettgers, a writer for GIGaom, via email:

“I think a Klout-type score is extremely powerful for two reasons. First, it quantifies something that is extremely abstract- influence. Second, the ability to compare people’s influence as a score creates competition and a gamification layer that drives further engagement. We’re all ‘virtual narcissists.”

The site, co-founded by Alex Gatof and Jason Fiedler, was created based on the premise that friend-sourced song recommendations are more powerful than any other algorithm that currently exists in online music consumption. “Nothing beats friend-based recommendations. It’s true with many categories—clothes, television shows, movies—but especially true with music,” says Fiedler, “There is something about the social nature of it; music just sounds better on Splash.FM.”

During the past three months of Private Beta testing, Gatof and Fiedler have absorbed feedback and implemented several key changes designed to make Splash.FM even stronger for its Public Beta Launch. Users can expect to see the following new amenities in the Splash.FM public beta suite:

Sign-Up: Anyone can sign-up via Facebook, Twitter, or create a username / password.

Home Page: Non-logged-in users will be able to browse the “Everyone” splash feed and trending “Top Tracks” chart to get a taste of what’s happening on the site before they sign-up.

Filters: The Most Splashed Songs can now be filtered to include just the “Last 7 Days” or “All-Time” on the site; amongst both the people you follow and everyone site-wide.

Roll Down: The site will automatically play from one song to the next.

Global Search: The search tool allows you to search songs, artists, and users – so you can easily find what/who you’re looking for.

Comments: These are now displayed as part of each Splash (without clicking to expand) so that you can add more flavor to why you’re splashing a particular song, and compel friends to Ripple (ie: Re-Splash) you.

Splash Score: The algorithm has been improved.

Featured Splashers: This is a new “icon” indicating verified splashers with established music taste and credibility, such as: DJs, artist, industry, radio personalities and cool brands (essentially a stamp-of-approval that these users are worth following).

Layout: Based on user feedback, Splash.FM has implemented a more intuitive site layout for sharing and discovery.

Looking Forward

The next phase of the site is going to be even more catered to the artist and the user, offering artists valuable analytics and the user exclusive perks, all with the ability to monetize the Splash Score. The mobile application is also a core focus, expected for release within the next two months.

Feedback On Twitter

Many people are tweeting in approval of Splash.FM:

Will Splash.FM be the next guilty pleasure for music snobs? Tell us what you think of this new platform.