Rami Korhonen From PlayMySong On Optimizing Your Startup's Burn Rate
Editor's note: This is a sponsored post by Tekes Tempo, where we interview their customers on practical information on running a startup.
Your startup's cashflow is obviously crucial to keep your eye on so we spoke to Rami Korhonen, the CEO of PlayMySong, about how he optimizes their burn rate. For those of you who haven't seen our past coverage of the Helsinki-based startup, PlayMySong allows anyone to create public jukebox out of a playlist on a computer and a mobile app. So if you're throwing a party with your friends, everyone has a say in what song in your Spotify playlist should go next using their smartphone connected to PlayMySong's Spotify app. Or for businesses like restaurants, bars, and gyms, PlayMySong offers a solution that updates the jukebox for the modern world.
Helsinki's Playmysong Becomes A Spotify App
As soon as it was announced that Spotify was opening up their API to users, Playmysong CTO Timo Kari did not sleep until he had a working prototype that would integrate their service into Spotify's collection. This was apparently jumping the gun, Spotify wants developers to first submit their ideas to confirm that the Swedish music delivery service finds the idea interesting before letting developers know to proceed, but Kari was a man inspired. Today, after much more polish, Playmysong has been accepted into Spotify's small, but growing list of apps.
We've covered Playmysong plenty in the past, but if you're unfamiliar with it, essentially it's a modern update to the jukebox. At supported bars, restaurants, hotels, and other locations, Playmysong lets users pull up their smartphones and pick the next songs to play off of the location's music library.
The most basic use-case is for the new Spotify app is for house parties. Spotify seems to be the main method of music delivery but for the house parties I've been to in recent years, but it's not perfect. A playlist usually keeps a party going, but when a partier wants that one song played, they usually search for and start the song off the playlist and you're left hearing that artist's b-sides on random for too long. Or sometimes a few people will just huddle around a computer to have their song played next, so all night you end up hearing just hearing half of every song.
Playmysong Getting Traction In US With Tekes
For the first of a series of posts we're doing in cooperation with Tekes Tempo, I had the opportunity to talk with Rami Korhonen of Playmysong about his financing through Tekes. If you're unfamiliar with Tekes Tempo, you may find a past article we did helpful as some background. In general, Tempo's goal is to quickly test products out on the market by providing financing as quickly as possible-- their aim is to provide financing within one month of a startup's application. The program's goal not necessarily to develop a finished product, but rather to gain more knowledge of markets and users.
But back to Rami and Playmysong. We've covered PlaymySong in the past, but if you haven't heard about them, Playmysong is a social jukebox app that lets you control the background music you hear when you're out at a bar, diner, or similar location. The new version of their iPhone app released last week shows your Facebook photo in the upcoming playlist, and allows you also host your own social stereo on your iPhone.
