Kailash Subedi from the novel music recommendation service RecooMe (which was featured on MusicKO last week) was kind enough to put up with me for a whole interview. The answers to the first part of the interview are below; the second part of the interview is here.

Full Name: Kailash Subedi
Age: 19
Startup: RecooME
Position: Founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

The world we live in is a very social world. It’s quite evident that people do things and buy things based on what other people (mainly friends) do and say. A lot of times my friends tell me verbally to listen to a song that they think is really good. But by the time I get to a place where I can listen to the song, I don’t remember what it is. Or often, I’ve had my friends say “I can’t believe you have this song on your iPod”.

I felt like we needed a place where friends could recommend songs, and create a playlist for each other. Furthermore, most of the time we discover new music by seeing what others are listening to. RecooMe allows users to follow others to see what they are listening to or recommending.

The most distinctive features of RecooMe are that it is a super easy-to-use service, and the fact that users are able to post a complete and playable song just by entering its name. This saves time – people find nothing but songs that can be played on the site.

What was the original launch date?

RecooMe is quite young since the BETA launch date, was May 1st

What has been the response so far? In which countries has it been more successful?

The response has been quite good. We’ve had a lot of visits from the US and Canada, and some European visitors as well. Most recommendations so far have been English but there are some international songs being recommended, too.

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

We’re working on tagging and custom playlists where users will be able to tag songs as, for example, gym music or road trip music. This will allow them to assemble playlists based on tags which they’ve created, and they will always get to have the right music for the right occasion.

Also, we are trying to expand our music and music information database. Thus, soon we will be adding other sources for music and enabling auto play on the site – users will be able to listen to all of their recommendations continuously and automatically. And we’re working on a mobile version of RecooMe, so that users will be able to take (and listen to) their recommendations anywhere.

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

In my opinion the internet has actually been a great tool for discovering music. As all 13 year-old girls would say, without the internet so much amazing talent like Justin Bieber would have gone unnoticed.

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

To be honest, I am very new to this. I’m still learning. I don’t have that much experience to advise others yet.

Continue to part 2 of the interview: “Music & You”.