Social.FM was a free

social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

for music fans. It was run by Mercora and was shut down in August 2008.Social.FM, Formerly Mercora, Shuts Down
/ref> Social.FM allowed Internet users to search and listen to a digital radio network of over three million songs, express their musical identity via a customizable profile page, and

webcast A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

music to other Social.FM users. Social.FM's mission was to catalogue and organize the world's music and make it universally searchable and legally listenable. Social.FM's catalogue contained over three million unique songs by over 200,000 individual artists across all music genres. The songs were available only through

streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

, and were free.

Company history

Social.FM (at the time known as Mercora) was co-founded in 2003 by Srivats Sampath. Before founding Social.FM, Sampath was the co-founder and president of

McAfee.com McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...

, vice-president of server product marketing at

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

, and president and CEO of Discussions Corporation.

How Social.FM worked

To listen to music, a user could search the Social.FM network via a web browser and click a song link. Alternatively, a Social.FM user could download a free

software client In computing, a client is a piece of computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server as part of the client–server model of computer networks. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in ...

that

s music from his personal music collection to other Social.FM users worldwide.

Musical self-expression and discovery

Social.FM allowed music lovers to express their musical identity to others via a customizable profile page. Users could create musical profiles, upload digital pictures, and listen to and webcast their favorite artists. A Social.FM user could discover new music by viewing recent searches, listening to webcasts, exploring mixes, or browsing the profiles and collections of other Social.FM users. A user could also search for artist biographies,

discographies Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry ...

, reviews,

image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

s, and podcasts. Social.FM users could also communicate and share their musical tastes via

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

s, messaging, and

chat Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagin ...

Social.FM Mobile

The Social.FM Mobile music service provided users with wireless access to the Social.FM network. Social.FM users could search and listen to a digital radio network of over three million unique songs and 200,000 individual artists. Social.FM Mobile also provided: * 100,000 channels of digital radio * Over-the-air access to the music library on the PC * Access to friends' music collections *

Streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

podcasts from leading media services *

Stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

Bluetooth support via

A2DP In order to use Bluetooth, a device must be compatible with the subset of Bluetooth ''profiles'' (often called services or functions) necessary to use the desired services. A Bluetooth profile is a specification regarding an aspect of Bluetooth-b ...

profiles Social.FM Mobile offered support for any Windows Mobile 5.0-based Smartphone or

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Compact operating system that has some of the abilities of modern desktop PCs. The name was introduced by Microsoft in 2000 ...

phone with Wi-Fi, GSM or

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

( 3G) connectivity. Windows Mobile 5.0-certified devices include the Motorola Q, Palm Treo 700w and Smartphone and Pocket PC phones by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, HTC, i-mate,

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, Samsung, and Audiovox.

IM Artist Program

The Social.FM IM Artist Program was intended for independent artists and bands that want to increase promotion and publicity for their music. As members of the IM Artist Program, participating artists received: * Five music channels webcasting to social.fm users worldwide * A "Now Playing" profile with artist pictures, biography, and discography * Website links to purchase CDs, merchandise, tickets, and more * The ability to communicate with fans and listeners via artist forums and chat The IM Artist program was in

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

and free.

Social.FM Madwords

Social.FM Madwords was a contextual advertising system that enabled advertisers to target text placements by artist or music genre. The text placements were displayed in the "Sponsored Links" section of a webpage upon a search for artist or genre (such as " Coldplay" or "Alternative"). In some ways, this system was similar to

Google AdWords Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the result ...

. Madwords enabled advertisers to sign up directly via a credit card and was priced on a pay per click (PPC) basis. Advertisers could create and upload their text ads, select their targeting criteria, set their budget and PPCs, and view statistics and reports via a password-protected webpage.

Search boxes

Social.FM search boxes enabled consumers to search and listen to music from websites and blogs. Website and blog operators could customize the search box to incorporate their desired color scheme, size, logo, and preferred artists. Consumers could search for artists and listen through a separate browser window.

Music iFrames

Social.FM Music iFrames enabled consumers to view a subset of songs available from a particular artist and click a song to listen. The list of songs was dynamically generated and updated every 60 seconds. There was also a 'more' option if the consumer desired to listen to a song that was not currently displayed within the Music iFrame. Clicking the 'more' button displayed a full list of songs available from a particular artist. Similar to Social.FM search boxes, website and blog operators could customize the Music iFrame to incorporate their desired color scheme, size, logo, and preferred artists.

System requirements

Social.FM required Windows 2000/ XP/ 2003 Server and a broadband Internet connection. To support webcasting, audio files must be in Vorbis, MP3, or WMA formats. In 2006, Social.FM expected to migrate to a browser-based model which would enable support for the Mac and Linux platforms.

Press

Social.FM is dead
VentureBeat, August 4, 2008

MP3.com, April 26, 2006
Tiscali Partners with Social.FM to Launch Tiscali Free Jukebox
TransWorldNews, April 26, 2006
Mercora IMRadio for Google Talk

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

, November 14, 2005

Awards

AlwaysOn OnHollywood 100 Award

AlwaysOn Media 100 Award

2006 DEMOfall Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Social.Fm Internet radio in the United States Internet properties established in 2003 Social media companies of the United States