Balakam, a Russian company which launched a search engine for media content two years ago, has just released the beta version of its new project, christened FindStream. The service monitors more than 27,000 Internet radio stations every two minutes, providing users with data on track popularity and emerging trends in the music industry.
The service is aimed at both music publishers and fans; for the former it seeks to become the primary instrument for artists’ performance analysis, while the latter can use FindStream as a music discovery tool.
“Every day we find new music played on the web and draw charts of the fastest accelerating and trending songs and artists on web radio,” said Balakam Chief Marketing Officer Daria Golyanina in an exchange with East-West Digital News. “Web radio is much more responsive to the new music distribution, so FindStream can discover a song that’s just appeared on the web or is gaining popularity.”
At present FindStream allows users to see the numbers of plays and listeners for popular tracks, as well as stats by country. There is also a link to the iTunes Store and an option to listen to a 30-second preview.
Raising funds to go global
FindStream is not the first service of its kind. However, rivals like Digital Radio Tracker and Radio Wave monitor only about five thousand stations, Golyanina claims. The startup’s main competitors are traditional artist performance analysis methods, including those offered by music streaming services as well as market research companies.
“We plan to do business globally with a special focus on the US market, where we have a representative office for further marketing and sales development,” Golyanina said.
“The main commercial focus will be on selling analytical reports to music industry players, radio stations and collecting societies. Additional income will be made through the selling of music content via iTunes and Amazon affiliate programs,” she added.
The startup, which is looking for investment from beyond Russia, is due to go out of beta somewhere in the fall. By that time the team plans to implement additional features, including statistics on the city level and advanced analysis tools for station comparison and correlation between genre and region.
Balakam is a resident company of Skolkovo, the international innovation hub under completion near Moscow. Founded in 2011, Balakam over the past two years has received $1.49 million in funding from RVC’s seed fund, as well as a $233,000 grant from the Skolkovo Foundation.
