Hangout.fm is bringing back the days of musical entertainment with its all-digital platform that is like a Roblox for music.
It’s like a virtual nightclub that allows people to create virtual rooms with human DJs — spaces where they can listen to music and enjoy things like virtual disco balls, competition leaderboards, DJ battles and virtual goods. The company has also raised $8 million. So far, Founders Fund and others are investors.
If any of this sounds slightly familiar, you may be pleased to know it comes from Joseph Perla, who was the founder of Turntable.fm back in 2011. Now Hangout.fm is live and it’s growing fast. It just crossed 1.5 million registered users.
Perla emphasizes the universal appeal of music and the platform’s potential to connect people across the world. Turntable.fm was able to reach users from all over the world before it was shut down. This time, Hangout.fm has secured music deals from Universal, Sony and Warner with music rooms that it launched six months ago.
“It’s kind of like a Roblox for music. Most of Gen Z is spending more time socializing in games than they are in social networks or real life, and it’s just increasing more and more. And on Roblox, there are games there, but much of the time people are just hanging out,” he said.
Instead of giving people virtual concerts, this puts the fans at the center. The users create and return to virtual rooms. Think virtual clubs, not algorithmic playlists. The company says lots of folks are coming over from Discord, as you can’t listen to music with friends in digital spaces.
It allows users to DJs spinning their own tunes or favorite performers. They can chat, share music in a virtual environment, and work in a space that is integrated with Discord. The platform emphasizes community, harmony, and user-generated content, including customizable avatars and virtual goods. It differentiates itself from competitors like Roblox by offering a unique music-focused social experience.
Perla said Hangout.fm is seeing strong repeat behavior — 90% of active users come back to the same rooms with the same people, building a rhythm and culture akin to gaming guilds*** akin to Roblox Brookhaven-style hangout – – except the shared activity is DJing and listening together instead of driving pixelated SUVs.
What it’s lik
Think structured incentives, return mechanics, consumable goods, avatar-based interaction.
But no AI. No targeted ads. No dark funnels — this is about human connection over music, not engagement hacks.
Perla believes Hangout.fm isn’t a music platform trying to be social — it’s a social game built around music. That’s what’s resonating.
Perla said, “Most people are playing in the foreground, playing the game, or mostly chatting, hanging out. We have a game where you can get on a stage and you’re the DJ.”
The point isn’t to downvote people who are bad.
“It’s a place where people can go where they have the ability to fully license and share music. There are some gaming mechanics that you put on top of it,” Perla said. “But the idea is we’ve been listening to music siloed with our AirPods. You go to Spotify, you’re still listening alone. Apple Music, you’re listening alone. And this is a way for legally, everyone can come together and listen together and connect over music because it’s a universal language.”
You can unlock cooler avatars and get season passes. The spaces have AI moderation. And as small rooms, they can be more intimate than a virtual concert.
“This is a third space where people can come together, like you go to a bar, you go to a club,” Perla said. “And it’s interactive.”
Empire of the Sun and Sophie Tucker and hundreds of other bands have done shows and performances on the platform, and more are coming, Perla said.
There’s no advertising, and therefore no algorithm that plays havoc with behavior on social networks. Instead, Hangout.fm is working on virtual goods.
Origins
Perla went to school at Princeton University but dropped out to start Turntable.fm in 2011. It went viral, but it didn’t have music deals. It had millions of users but got shut down by the record labels.
After that, he went to Facebook and worked on shifting it to mobile. He was the tech and product lead for newsfeed on iOS and he had a greaet experience, sitting next to Mark Zuckerberg and then shipping features and products to billions of people.
“One thing I was sad about is our total focus on metrics of increasing user numbers and either obsession with the app in a way that’s measurable but isn’t necessarily making them happy,” said Perla about social media platforms.
“What I realized is it’s not really what I wanted to do. I wanted to make sure I was doing something that made everyone grow and learn and be positive. I mentioned I left and did some other startups,” Perla said.
He was one of the first 50 engineers at Lyft and saw it through its initial public offering.
“Through this whole time, I was thinking, it’s even gotten even worse, like the focus of social media on conflict and fighting and division. It’s what it’s all about still. And I thought there needs to be some other alternative to that way of thinking. And so I wanted to build something that’s more focused on community and unity and harmony,” Perla said.
He thought about Turntable.fm and music and how it had a lot of those elements. Hangout.fm is a social music game.
Perla said he likes this after seeing firsthand (he was at Lyft and Facebook) how algorithm-driven platforms shape behavior. He went back to music — but rebuilt it from the ground more like a game.
“Hangout.fm lets people be more positive and optimistic and civil. And it’s all about community. It’s all about ways to get people to connect online. It’s a bit of an escape from your life, but in a way that’s not just escaping to the fantasy world,” he said. “It’s actually connecting to people you love. So we built that out. I got the music deals from Universal and Sony and Warner, and I started to build it out and then launch it. And finally launched.”
Perla was in Berlin at the time in the pandemic, and a lot of his friends were DJs, and they were saying that they were super bummed because they couldn’t play anymore because all the clubs were closing down. And so I said, ‘Oh, just use something like Turntable.fm or a copycat of it.’ And they were like, ‘What’s turntable?.'” What are you talking about? There’s nothing like this. And I looked and there wasn’t. There wasn’t. So I started a crowdfunding campaign, and I said, ‘Hey, if you want to bring Turntable.fm back or something like it, give me some money. And 1000s of people actually gave $1, $10 hundreds of dollars.”
He added, “And so that’s when I knew I needed to build it. So started building it.”
Trust and safety
“Trust and Safety is so, so, so important. It’s the most important thing for what we’re doing. We have a lot of AI moderation, and as we grow, we’ll be able to do more and more of that, as well as have human moderators. We have 24/7 coverage around the world,” Perla said.
When people go into virtual rooms, they talk about things that remind them of their childhood, centered around music.
“This is where I was when I first listened to this album, and my first kiss. And then people just kind of connect more to you,” Perla said.
The company is lean with less than 20 people. The funding will go toward purposes like licensing, engineering, developing a virtual goods store and more.