It’s official – wahwah.fm has launched its iPhone app onto the American market in a much-anticipated move. The service has already proved a success in Germany, and the Berlin-based startup was at SXSW to announce the release of the download across the Atlantic.
Targeted at music lovers, wahwah.fm allows users, artists and brands to create a radio station, put together playlists and broadcast in real time.
Following the German release in February, the wahwah.fm app reached the iTunes App Store recommendation page in just four days. The company has also twice been named one of Germany’s top ten startups.
Ari Stein, head of communications at wahwah.fm, told Silicon Allee recently: “We are talking to a few managers of artists, and talking to brands and companies about how they’re using wahwah.fm. I’m heading over to SXSW to discuss a lot of those things and future prospect of how it can be used as a new music platform. To my knowledge, it’s the only app of its kind in the world right now, and that proves to be quite exciting development for a lot of people who want to develop a new kind of way to interact with people.”
The full version of the app enable users to source songs from their own local iPhone libraries and share their broadcasts with their Facebook friends. The firm’s CEO and founder, Philipp Eibach, also revealed that there were already plans in place to further expand the service – which has been dubbed the ‘Foursquare for sound’.
He said: “We are thrilled to release wahwah.fm now to the very important USA market and greet all the new fans. We will continue to France and Great Britain where we already have a solid and loyal fan base awaiting the release.”
Further progress is also set to be made on making the wahwah.fm music catalogue more comprehensive. With numerous labels and collection societies such as GEMA in Germany and the American Sound Exchange already on board, agreements are being finalised with some of the remaining labels.