Launched four years ago, Tastebuds is a relative veteran of the London tech scene, offering what we previously noted was Last.fm-powered dating for music fans.
The principle behind Tastebuds was always simple: If you’re an avid music fan you probably want to date people who share your taste in bands. And by digging into Last.fm’s API, Tastebuds promised to make finding that special person a little bit easier.
Although Tastebuds has extended its scope to the broader social realm, it’s clear that online dating still plays a crucial part in the service. And last year the company raised a $600,000 seed round to expedite growth – particularly on mobile. With that in mind, today Tastebuds officially unveils its first native app, kicking off on iPhone.
How it looks
If you don’t have an account already, it’s quick and easy to set one up through the mobile app itself. You can either use your Facebook credentials, which is sometimes essential in apps such as this, or ‘take the scenic route’ by using your good ol’ fashioned email address.
Once in, you indicate your sexual orientation, gender, city, date-of-birth, and insert a profile picture.
The app then scans your local music library, adding your ‘favourite’ artists to your Tastebuds account, though you can manually add other music too.
You are then matched with others users based on the artists you both like. It’s all perfectly simple – you like the look of the guy or gal? You like that they like Nirvana, Sigur Ros and the Pixies? Well, send them a message, or send them a song.
Music matches are also divided into categories such as Indie rock fans or Vinyl collectors for easier filtering. And you simply swipe through profiles until you find someone you like the look of.
“Our mission is to connect people across the globe through music so we’re thrilled to finally introduce the Tastebuds concept to mobile,” explains Alex Parish, Tastebuds co-founder. “Musical preferences can tell you a lot about a person and having something in common is a great conversation starter. It’s the best way to break the ice.”
Tastebuds was founded in 2010 by Alex Parish and Julian Keenaghan after playing together in a band. They were one of ten teams selected to participate in the inaugural Springboard startup accelerator program in Cambridge back in 2011. A native mobile app has been a long time coming, but it’s good to see it finally arrive. We’re told an Android incarnation is in the works, and should follow within a few months.
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