Earbits
| Pricing model | Free |
|---|---|
| Platforms | Web, iPhone, Android |
| Format | Stream, MP3 |
| Restrictions | None |
| Website | http://www.earbits.com/ |
Earbits is a commercial-free music streaming service & music marketing platform that was founded in 2010. The streaming service is available to consumers as a website in addition to clients for the iPhone, iPod Touch & Android mobile devices. The music marketing platform is available to independent artists, labels and concert promoters who can bid for their songs to be played. Earbits currently has 550 labels, 10,000 artists and 100,000 songs in its library.
Earbits graduated from the startup accelerator program Y Combinator as part of the Winter 2011 class and has received a total of 895k dollars in funding from Charles River Ventures, Geoff Ralston, Matt Mullenweg, Start Fund and private investors.
In early 2013 Earbits launched their own virtual currency that allows consumers to earn on-demand access to streaming music by taking actions that benefit artists, such as joining a band's official fan page or mailing list. Unlike Spotify and other on-demand music streaming services, Earbits uses Groovies as their currency to unlock on-demand features instead of having to pay real money for it.
Earbits has been called the "new breed of artist-focused Internet radio" in times in which the online music business is hardly profitable.
Earlier, Earbits announced that they had been shutting down their service after operating for over 4 years, on 16 June 2014, with the reason being stated as lack of capital funding to compete in the market. They have since reported to have received funding from one of their strategic partners enabling them to continue their online services for an indefinite period.
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Wikipedia