If Twitter and Spotify had a baby, it would be Parallel Tracks, a social networking platform that allows users to listen to music in real-time along with their favorite people. Daniel Noskin, a junior business management and marketing major at the University of Maryland, is single-handedly changing the music industry from his dorm room with a free streaming website that is inherently awesome, a unique experience for indie, rock, bluegrass, and folk lovers alike.
You may remember Noskin from back in January when he leveraged his talented friends to host a hackathon and create the prototype for Parallel Tracks from the ground up in a matter of one day. Since then, the driven junior has taken matters into his own hands, refining all aspects of Parallel Tracks that make it stand out as the premier digital music provider. Though in its early stages, Parallel Tracks is already gaining traction, catching the eye of many a college student, techie, and even athletes.
Currently Parallel Tracks offers users the ability to listen in parallel with their friends and people they follow, allowing them to tune into songs others are jamming to in real-time. Thanks to a partnership with Grooveshark, there's also a songfeed that provides users with the option to find songs within the same genre as they're listening to, a chance for consumers to branch out of their typical stylized playlists.
Looking forward, Noskin plans on including advantageous features like a messaging capability, similar to a Google Hangout over music. He also intends to focus more on big names in the entertainment industry, those who tend to have a great influence on their followers. Be it star-studded artists or beloved sports guys like RG III, Noskin's plan is to tailor Parallel Tracks for them down the road. Based on analytics, Parallel Tracks will provide people like Ke$ha with stats showcasing who is listening to their music so they know where they should be playing a set next, what demographic is turning into their songfeed, and much, much more. That information alone will be huge for music artists and distinguished stars alike.
And how will Noskin get such talented folks on board to use Parallel Tracks? With the help of UMD alums. Already attracting former college athletes, Parallel Tracks is quickly spreading through word-of-mouth. Basketball and football players, they're tremendous assets from a marketing perspective.
What will really put Parallel Tracks on the map, however, is that the service is free, you don't have to download anything, it's simple to use, and you can stream music in real-time without any annoying interruptions from irrelevant advertisers.
Over the next couple of months, Noskin, the face behind Parallel Tracks, will be working tirelessly to add more facets to the site. In conjunction with other members of Startup Shell, UMD's student-run incubator, he will be receiving the help he needs, invaluable advice to guide his startup to success.
"We're students and we want to make something that's cool and change the world for the better one day," explained Noskin. "Red Bull is known for saying 'no one wishes they slept more in college' and I think that's true. I accomplished something awesome, and I have no regrets."
