Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

Niche Dating Apps Are the Next Big Thing

WALL STREET JOURNAL - Aug 2 - The options range from apps for those committed to sobriety (Loosid) and people on the autism spectrum (Hiki), to matchmakers for fitness buffs (TeamUp), dog lovers (Dig), gamers (Kippo), vegetarians (Veggly) and amateur astrologists (Stars Align, NUiT and the Pattern). "S'More" helps users pair up by shifting the focus from physical appearances to mutual goals and interests. When matches first connect, they see only blurred versions of each other's profile photos, along with bios, hobbies and answers to prompts like "What are your top 3 qualities in a match?" As they exchange messages, their photos gradually un-blur. Christian Mingle was launched in 2001, while Grindr made its debut in 2009 and Tastebuds, which matches people based on their taste in music, showed up in 2010.

10 oddly specific, real dating sites

• Bristlr: For bearded men and women who love beards
• Zombie Passions: For those hung up on the "undead"
• Sea Captain Date: For seafarers seeking their first mates
• Clown Dating: "Everyone loves a clown"
• Mullet Passions: For anyone who likes a good party in the back
• Paranormal Dating: For those with metaphysical fixations
• Equestrian Cupid: Because horse gals and lads deserve love, too
• Sizzlr: For lovers of all things bacon
• Twindog: To help your furry friend find a canine best friend
• Ship: If you want your friends to do your swiping for you

by Rachel Wolfe
See full article at Wall Street Journal

Tastebuds To Acquire Dating Startup moosify

PR WEB - Aug 26 - Music-based dating service Tastebuds will acquires moosify, another music-based dating site that matches people with similar musical preferences.

See full article at PR Web

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Tastebuds.fm: For Those Who Share The Same Taste In Music

INDEPENDENT.IE - Apr 20 - Tastebuds.fm is a place to meet people through music. The site has 170K users around the world. The users are often young music lovers and concert-goers but also people looking to expand their social network. The site was founded by Julian Keenaghan and Alex Parish in 2010.

See full article at Independent.ie

See all posts on Tastebuds.fm

Tastebuds Launches Gig Roulette Feature

PR WEB - Jan 23 - Tastebuds, a music focused social network, has launched Gig Roulette. The feature allows users to import their Facebook photos and music likes and play a game to find a concert buddy. The game displays a concert and a potential match, allowing users to hit or pass. Mutual matches are notified through private message. Tastebuds has users in over 100 countries with 200,000 messages sent every day.

See full article at PR Web

See all posts on Tastebuds.fm

Harmonic Convergence At Home

THE DEAL - July 16 - Londoners Julian Keenaghan and Alex Parish met in a band, got into Web development and started Tastebuds in 2010. Tastebuds is a music-oriented dating site, where individuals connect through rankings of up to eight favorite bands or artists. The site has ~100K users in 100 countries, although it has yet to launch officially in the U.S. Tastebuds Media raised $600K. "This is loosely in-between social networks and Internet dating," explains Mark Brooks, who runs Online Personals Watch. Of all shared interests, music is one of the most defining. "If you're interested in Anthrax, that suggests a whole batch of characteristics or lifestyle," Brooks says. Brooks estimates the market worldwide is ~$4 billion. Match.com boasts ~25% market share in the United States followed by Zoosk ($40M revenue) and eHarmony ($250M rev.) Movies give music a run for its money. "Film is very similar to music, and hard-core movie fans compare to hard-core music fans," said Dana Loberg, co-founder of MovieLaLa.com, a social discovery site centered on the movies. MovieLaLa.com's revenue model is based on generating data that, Loberg believes, studios will pay for. That data will enable distributors to market movies more effectively.

by Matt Miller
See full article at The Deal

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Tastebuds Scores $600K

TECH CRUNCH - Apr 21 - Tastebuds, the startup that matches people based on their musical tastes, is announcing a $600K seed round from Black Ocean, which will be used to launch mobile apps, grow its developer team, as well as formally launching in the U.S. Last May Tastebuds launched a Spotify app, which essentially embeds the service inside of the streaming music site. Tastebuds is free to join, although the company has experimented with a number of premium micro-features, such as “Incognito mode”, which hides your online status and enables you to browse profiles anonymously. It isn’t ruling out a more standard recurring subscription model in the future.

by Steve O'Hear
See full article at Tech Crunch

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

What Music We Enjoy Says About Us

MASHABLE - Feb 28 -  A new site, Stereotype.fm, collected data from Tastebuds.fm, a music-based dating site. The stats on Stereotype are based on questions ~1K users have answered.

Most Obvious Stereotype.fm Factoids

1. Matisyahu Fans Are Most Likely to Be Jewish
2. One Direction Fans Are Most Likely to Have Peed in a Public Pool
3. Blondie Fans Are Most Likely to Prefer Blondes
4. Wu-Tang Clan Fans Are the Most Likely to Smoke Weed Regularly

Most Unexpected Stereotype.fm Factoids

1. Elton John Fans Are Most Likely to Have a Tattoo
2. Katy Perry Fans Are Least Likely to Kiss You on a First Date
3. Wolf Parade Fans Are Most Likely to Cause a Car Accident
4. Destiny's Child Fans Are Most Likely to Refuse a Threesome

by Fran Berkman
See full article at Mashable

See all posts on Tastebuds.fm

Tastebuds New Spotify App Matches People Based On Music

HUFFINGTON POST - May 10 - What would the future of online dating look like if we were able to meet people online without having to describe ourselves in 100 words? Perhaps like music site Tastebuds.fm & Spotify's app. The app integrates with Spotify, scanning users most frequently played music showing them people nearby who have similar music tastes. They can browse prospective dates, listen to their matches' favourite music and send them messages. Tastebuds.fm & Spotify have found that 43% of first messages get a reply.

by Emma Gannon
See full article at Huffington Post

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Three Niche Dating Sites For Targeted Romance

CNN - Apr 26 - Single Fit People, a free dating site, allows folks who like to work out to find other folks who like to work out to. The site even organizes events where singles can mingle and run around. Tastebuds.fm is a free dating site that help you avoid anyone out there who "likes everything but rap and country". The site allows you to easily port over your musical interests from Facebook or Last.fm so as to weed out anyone not familiar with that most important holiday in the world, Record Store Day. A little site called Tawkify aims to act as your guide through the morass of online social interactions. For about $15 a pop, Tawkify matches up potential soulmates based on their Klout scores (a service that measures your social influence online) as well as other factors.

by Brenna Ehrlich and Andrea Bartz
See full article at CNN

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Tastebuds.fm: Finds a Music Loving Date

MASHABLE - July 13 - Tastebuds.fm is a dating site that launched last summer to help music heads connect over their mutual adoration for bands and has just added a new feature called “Events Matchmaker”. Events Matchmaker allows users to find concert-going dates.

by Brenna Ehrlich
See full article at Mashable

See all posts on Tastebuds.fm

Love The One Who Loves What You Love

THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Feb 3 - Creative Mates, 420 Dating, Veggie Connection, Date My Pet: All push partner customization one step beyond, matching users with specific careers, musical preferences, drug habits, etc. “These specialty sites pander to those people who are looking for this mirror image of themselves,” says psychologist Eva Fisher, “an idealized, enhanced version of themselves.” Cupidtino launched last June, and has attracted ~27,000 users across the globe. "Mac and Apple fans often have a lot in common,” explains Cupidtino founder Mel Sampat. Tastebuds.fm is another example of hyper-vertical dating sites. The site invites users to plug in the names of their favourite bands and artists for a matchup.

The full article was originally published at Globe and Mail, but is no longer available.

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Tastebuds.fm - A Brand New Dating Service For Music Lovers

PRESS RELEASE - Aug 23 - Tastebuds.fm is a brand new music dating website that matches potential partners based primarily on their tastes in music. It integrates directly with Last.fm, allowing users to plug in their username and immediately populate their profile. There’s also the option to manually input your favourite bands when searching for matches. FULL ARTICLE @ RESPONSE SOURCE