Online social music service Turntable.fm announced in its blog that it is shutting down its Piki service soon.
Piki is the “more laid-back” (as the founders describe it) version of the Turntable service; “a Pandora-like, human-powered radio app combined with powerful Twitter-inspired social features,” (as TechCrunch wrote when the beta launched). While Turntable listeners hear music chosen by others in “real time” (in “rooms,” like listening to a DJ in person), Piki scans music hand-picked by your friends over time, and creates radio channels based on this music (with the option of listening by genre).
But Piki “just didn’t have the traction that we were hoping for, so we are closing it to fully focus on Turntable,” wrote Turntable.fm founder and CEO Billy Chasen in the blog. The Next Web reports Turntable also alerted users via e-mail that the last day of service will be September 23. The company also reportedly pinned Piki’s demise on lack of resources to “continue developing and maintaining” the service. It expects to launch a new version of the main Turntable service next month.