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The Hype Machine founder Anthony Volodkin has admirably bootstrapped his little music startup for years -- now even working with some labels -- and now has a staff of 4 to show for it.
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If you're not familiar, The Hype Machine basically cruises a list of music blogs and pulls in the music they're linking to -- it's an easy way to find both new music to listen to and new music blogs to read.
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The NYC-based site has about 2 million visitors a month, and over 65% visit more than 9 times a month, Volodkin tells us.
Today, the company launched a new, $3 iPhone app, which lets you do the same basic things on your phone -- find and listen to new music, "love" tracks (syncing to your Hype Machine account), and buy tracks on iTunes. It's simple, but it works.
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Here's what you first see when you launch the app: The Hype Machine's cute, old-timey logo
Here's the home screen. You can listen to music by "Latest," "Popular," or by genre
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We click on "Latest" and get a David Bowie song. Want to buy it? Click the purple iTunes logo.
You boot up the iTunes app on your iPhone and can buy some Bowie here. Nice touch: The music in the Hype Machine app keeps playing in the background.
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Back to the app, we've been skipping through songs, but note that you can only skip a certain number of songs in a row.
You can also "love" a track with the little heart in the lower-left corner.
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But make sure you're logged in first. If not, you'll see this error message. You can login or sign up for a new account within the app's "settings" section, at the upper-left corner of the main screen.
Here's another track. To see the blog post that included the music, tap the icon that looks like a sheet of printed paper.
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Here's the blog post: You can read all about the song here.
You can also sift through a giant list of genres.
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Or listen to the Hype Machine podcast.
Or browse by music blog, too. Remember: The Hype Machine is as much about finding new music blogs as new music.
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We've tapped into another tune from the list of blogs.
That's about it! Now check out another New York startup...