- Hangout, a new social music platform, launched in November.
- The platform now has over 1.1 million users, who are able to stream over 100 million songs.
- In August, the company closed its $8.2 million seed investment. Here's the pitch deck it used.
Joseph Perla thinks the way we listen to music is due for a shake-up.
Spotify, the largest music streaming service, has been focused on AI and podcasting. And TikTok, a breakthrough platform for music discovery and marketing, could still be banned in the US.
Perla, CEO of social music platform Hangout, wants to make the music listening experience more human.
"I'm building a whole new kind of social platform that's focused on connection and unity and harmony," Perla told Business Insider. "And I'm doing that with music."
Hangout, which launched in November, lets people connect around music on both web and mobile through listening rooms where users can queue songs, chat, and discover new music. Hangout has surpassed 1.1 million registered users since launching, according to the company.
It's not the first time Perla has built a music product. He was the VP of technology of Turntable.fm, a similar music service where users could collaboratively play music in chat rooms. Turntable's original iteration ran from 2011 to 2013. It was relaunched by CEO Billy Chasen in 2021 with backing from Andreessen Horowitz. Chasen's version has since rebranded to Deepcut.fm.
When building Hangout, Perla said it was crucial to secure rights to music off the bat. Through partnerships with labels like Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Merlin (a digital rights agency that covers independent labels), Hangout is able to host over 100 million full-length tracks on the platform. Users can also connect their Spotify, Apple Music, or Soundcloud accounts.
"That means that we have content for everybody's taste, everybody's genre," Perla said. "As we scale up the platform to more and more users, we will have a Hangout for you that fits your exact taste, that has five other people that love exactly that kind of thing that you like."
Hangout has both public and private rooms where users can listen to music, but private hangouts do require a paid subscription. The company is using a freemium model for monetization early on, with paid subscriptions running between $5 and $50 a month.
Perla said Hangout also wants to be a hub for music marketing as artists prepare to launch albums and tours. It has already hosted listening parties and AMAs with musicians, such as Empire of the Sun, Greta Van Fleet, and Cage the Elephant.
Hangout's launch comes at a time when consumers are craving new social networking platforms.
"We don't want to be the everything platform, but we think what we've made a much healthier way of having a social experience," Perla said.
Other social music apps have also gained traction in the past few years, like group-listening platforms Stationhead and social music feed Airbuds. Spotify itself has made a play in social listening, launching a feature called Jam in 2023 that lets groups sync their listening. It has collaborative playlists, too.
In August, Hangout announced that it had closed a $8.2 million seed round from investors such as Founders Fund, Elizabeth Street Ventures, and 468 Capital.
Read the 26-page pitch deck Hangout used to raise millions:
Note: Hangout has redacted details and amended some pages so that the document could be shared externally.
Hangout's pitch deck was used in 2024.
It starts by stepping back in time to the 2000s.
"In the 2000s there was pent up demand for on-demand solo streaming," the slide reads. It then lists several services that were popular at the time: Napster, Pirate Bay, Kazaa, LimeWire, eDonkey, Morpheus, and SoulSeek.
Then came Spotify.
The slide says that Spotify "captured the opportunity."
Hangout also references another music app called Groovy.
"Over a decade later, Groovy proved there was pent up demand for social listening," the slide says.
The pitch deck page says that Groovy had 250 million users.
Then Groovy shut down.
"Due to piracy, Groovy app abruptly shut down by the music industry in 2022," the page reads.
Hangout introduces its product-market fit: group streaming.
"We will capture latent demand for group streaming," the slide says. It also lists several music apps that were shut down, including Perla's previous venture, Turntable.
Hangout has established relationships with some of the largest music labels.
"Nobody social licensed all the music … until us," the slide reads. It also says that Hangout has over 100 million full tracks on its platform.
It cites TikTok's music app, too.
"Even TikTok couldn't get global licenses for its new music service," the slide reads.
TikTok shut down its music streaming app in 2024 and never launched it in the US.
Hangout also has an enterprise application.
Hangout@Work is the startup's enterprise offering. It pitches the product as "the soundtrack to a stronger team at work."
The slide includes testimonials as well.
Hangout introduces Joseph Perla, its founder and CEO.
Perla includes his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his career highlights. He worked at Turntable, Facebook, and Lyft.
It also lists its team and advisors.
Then the deck goes into product screenshots.
Hangout also has a Discord integration.
The pitch deck highlights the platform's Gen-Z users.
And it includes feedback from a user about using Hangout at work.
Then the deck goes into its partnerships and marketing strategy.
Here's what it lists about its partnerships with the music industry:
- Live online events every week featuring artist album releases, tour promotions, merch sales, etc
- Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and Merlin association of hundreds of labels
- thousands of artists
- hundreds of millions of superfans
- billions of social media followers
- billions of $ in marketing budgets
As it wraps up its deck, Hangout looks out to the months ahead.
"What will we get after launch in the first 12 months?" the slide desk asks.
Here's the "expected 2025 traction" it lists:
- 10 million MAU
- 10,000 companies onboarded for Hangout@Work
1-3 million SaaS licenses
Only 50,000 to
break-even
- $10-90M/year in revenue
It also lays out a global growth road map.
Hangout launched its product in 2024 and plans to launch its avatar store in 2025. It also plans to raise a Series A investment round in 2025, while eyeing an IPO down the road.
The deck concludes with "potential final outcomes."
It lists two scenarios:
Target Case
- 1-5 billion users
- $30-200 billion/year in revenue
- 2 million paid corporates
- $100-800 billion valuation
- Comps: TikTok, Netflix, Meta
Moderate Case
- 100 million users
- $1-10 billion/year in revenue
- 200,000 paid corporates for Hangout@Work
- $5-50 billion valuation
- Comps: Discord, Spotify, Apple Music, Slack
