Platform vs. Feature

Soundrop announced last week that it's streamed 35 million tracks through its Spotify app thus far and is about to close its first round of funding with "leading VCs." Tech Crunch calls Soundrop the Turntable.FM rival, and for obvious reasons. Both are based on creating or joining "rooms" and having the users select the songs to be played. Some of the differences include that Soundrop is based on votes from the users in a majority rules environment, rather than rotating which DJ gets to pick the song , and there are no points for users in Soundrop as there are in Turntable, simply voting on which songs you want to hear.

The largest difference between Soundrop and Turntable,FM, however, is their approach to their concept. The two platforms make a glaring distinction between a product and a feature, a key difference which increasingly pops up in the digital space with sites and apps. Is the concept something that can stand alone as a product or a destination, or is it a service or element that should be incorporated into a larger business? With proper strategizing, a company can take an idea in either direction of course. It's simply a matter of deciding who you want to be competing with and who you want to be working with (and being able to make those relationships work).