Sway.fm – Collecting Songs From Discovery Apps Into Existing Libraries

Sway.fm is a browser application that consolidates a user’s favorite songs found through music discovery apps (denoted by giving a thumbs-up, hitting the “like” button, or sending to their favorites) into simple and easy-to-find playlists. From there, the app facilitates the sharing of those tracks amongst friends and fans across different social networks, as well as the discovery of more content from those artists.

Here’s how it works: imagine you are using Pandora and discover a track you like, so you press the “thumbs up” button. Normally, that song would not find its way outside of Pandora unless you were to immediately download the mp3, or seek out and add the song to an online playlist somewhere. But with Sway.fm, you can essentially “keep” your favorite songs, as its browser extension instantly adds it to your Spotify or Rdio library so you can enjoy them again later.

“The goal of Sway.fm is to help make it as simple as possible for listeners to stay engaged with the music they love after initial discovery,” said co-founder, Jordan Feldstein. “We want music fans to continue using their favorite discovery services to find the tracks they love, but access that music again and again with ease.”

Earlier this week, Hypebot ran an interview with Rdio Engineering VP Todd Berman, and his belief that Rdio, Spotify, Rhapsody, and MOG need to begin thinking like partners if they want to see streaming music succeed. Timely enough, through their own research, Sway.fm has actually found that consumers respond rather well to messaging about a "universal music library" that plays songs found on / from any source, which means that they could be positioning themselves quite nicely.

“We encourage promoters, managers, music tech workers, artists and fans to connect with us on Twitter at @SwayFM,” continued Jordan. “We want to share a dialog with you about how the experience of online listening can evolve to better engage our audiences outside of the web. Of particular interest to us is the potential for incorporating creative targeted ticket and merchandise sales into the online radio experience, among other ways to keep fans engaged.”

Thieir service is currently in private beta, and Hypebot readers can sign up for an invite here.

This post is by regular Hypebot contributor and independent music business professional & musician, Hisham Dahud (@HishamDahud)