Music service mySpoonful has launched a new online portal aimed at capturing casual music listeners seeking an easy way to discover new independent music. The service originally launched as Spoonful, and built a strong following in the SF Bay Area, but will try to become a national presence after being re-branded.
The new service and e-mail newsletter, which is delivered to at least 25,000 subscribers already, could help the service reach new heights in 2011. It’s designed to be informative and useful while not cluttering subscribers’ inboxes with constant e-mails and advertisements for new bands.
"mySpoonful is perfect for people who don't have a lot of time, but still want to keep up on new music," said Dan Cohen, mySpoonful CEO and co-founder. "We're like the web version of the employee at the indie record store that always knows what new bands to listen to."
Every week mySpoonful picks three independent artists that the service believes music fans might enjoy. The newsletter will include a link to either download or listen to music from the select indie artist highlighted in the letter, all for free.
The website is accessible from mobile phones and it seems likely that custom apps for the iPhone and Android will also be built. I'd expect a BlackBerry version to be released sometime in 2011 as well.
The service is free to users, and mySpoonful generates revenue from advertising, sponsored communications and music sales.
New indie music can be extremely difficult to find for music listeners, but mySpoonful hopes to make it easier. There are a number of online indie music stations available through Pandora, AOL Music, Shoutcast, and other popular music stores, but it sounds like mySpoonful is bringing indie music discovery to a whole new level.
