Jeanne Noonan/for New York Daily News
The staff of Songza (l. to r.), Brad Hayward, Jordan Agusti, Eric Davich, Michael Henson, Peter Asbill, Elliah Breece, and Elias Roman enjoy a great views atop their Long Island City headquarters.
A trio of college friends are betting that they have created a soundtrack for success.
The Long Island City-based Songza, which streams curated song playlists tailored to fit listeners’ moods, has several million users, according to the company.
And the service’s following is growing online and through free smart phone and iPad apps.
“We’re about using music to make what you’re doing in the real world better,” said Songza CEO Elias Roman, 28, of Long Island City. “We’re really good at figuring out what you need a soundtrack for.”
Roman, along with Chief Operating Officer Peter Asbill, 28, of SoHo, and Chief Product Officer Elliott Breece, 28, of SoHo, debuted the Songza iPad app last month. Within days it was one of the top downloads, Roman said.
The music junkies bought Songza in 2008 when they ran a music download company founded in their senior year at Brown University called Amie Street. Over the next few years, they sold Amie Street to Amazon and did a complete overhaul of Songza.
In March, they launched a concierge service that offers playlists to fit user moods based on the time and day of the week. Revenue is raised through advertising and creating playlists for clients.
“We knew immediately we were onto something,” Asbill said. “All of our playlists are hand-curated song by song by music experts.”
The experts are journalists, critics, DJs, musicians and even professors culling songs from a library of more than 20 million pieces, he said. Songza boasts more than 100,000 playlists featuring 80 to 120 songs per list.
Listeners are unable to request or keep songs, but can purchase them online, Roman said.
John Biggs, an editor at the technology website TechCrunch, predicts music streaming companies like Songza — which faces stiff competition from similar services like Pandora and Spotify — will spike in popularity as they become more mainstream.
“You’re eventually going to want this celestial jukebox where everything’s available as opposed to buying things willy-nilly,” he said. “It’s a great way to get new music, find music that you love from previous years. It’s also a way to discover new artists.”
Anindya Ghose, a business professor at New York University, said the popularity of smart phone apps over the last year has helped start-up companies.
Music and entertainment apps that use social media tend to do particularly well, he said.
“Mobile apps are enabling new businesses to emerge and thrive,” Ghose said. “You can potentially have your entire business resolving around apps.”
Jukay Hsu, founder of the Coalition for Queens, a group that promotes the borough’s tech community, said he is a Songza fan.
“They’re a great example of a tech company in Queens that’s doing really amazing, innovative things,” Hsu said.
