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# iLike Option
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/ilike-option/
- Published: 2009-04-28T03:42:09.000Z
- Updated: 2009-04-28T03:42:09.000Z
- Description: Kyle Bylin, Associate Editor Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ali Partovi, who is the CEO of iLike. In this interview, Ali talks about the future he imagines. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/04/ilike-option.html]
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Uncategorized, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 11:03

**Kyle Bylin**, *Associate Editor*  

[![ilike_logo](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3a/95/3a957c06-c825-4057-9939-0a274cc16d23/content/images/farm4-static-flickr-com/3301/3481858403_a6c52ab925_t.jpg "ilike_logo")](http://www.flickr.com/photos/23641367@N08/3481858403/?ref=hypebot.com)

*Today, I had the pleasure of speaking* 
*with Ali Partovi, who is the CEO of iLike. In this interview, Ali* 
*talks about the future he imagines for his company, pay-for-play* 
*business models, social discovery, and what’s working for artists on* 
*the site.*

*In a perfect world, where innovation isn’t stifled and prolonged by a room full of lawyers…*

**Q:** **What does the future you’re trying to build for fans and artists look like?**  
  
**![ali_closeup](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3a/95/3a957c06-c825-4057-9939-0a274cc16d23/content/images/farm4-static-flickr-com/3593/3482688456_80126a8b31_t.jpg "ali_closeup")Ali Partovi:**   
In an ideal world, talented new artists should get discovered based on  
merit. And not just the mass-appeal stars: a talented artist with  
narrow appeal should be able to reach fans within a niche genre. Fans  
want more diversity; they want the mass-appeal stuff, but they also  
want more variety that fits their tastes.

*Growing up,* 
*the first medium that I developed a relationship with was radio,* 
*because it was free and it was the first personal electronic device* 
*that owned…*

*Now,* 
*arguably, for up-and-coming generations, the first medium they are* 
*exposed to is the Internet and possibly sites such as iLike.*  
**Q:**   
**How do you believe the way relational development towards a medium** 
**alters when the user is actively involved in the experience they create** 
**for themselves?**

**Ali Partovi:**   
Consumers have more influence not only on getting a “personalized”  
experience for themselves, but also impacting what gets “programmed” to  
other people with similar tastes. A social network is a very natural  
mechanism for this: if I discover a new artist that I love, I have a  
natural desire to share that with my friends on Facebook. This is  
exactly what iLike facilitates, providing tools for me to send that  
music to the friends who have similar tastes to my own. In addition,  
the consumer is also creating “new content” in the form of commentary.  
Seeing what normal people (especially your friends) have to say about a  
song is just as much part of the experience as hearing the music.

*Mass* 
*broad-casted radio enables a generalization of interests and assumed* 
*‘known artists’ between crowds of people. Many of us have listened to* 
*the same music simply because there wasn’t enough airtime on radio* 
*stations to give everyone exactly what they wanted. Therefore, we had to all agree on listening to music that everyone ‘kind of wanted.’* 
  
*Whereas* 
*discovery sites, such as iLike, are fueled by recommendation engines* 
*that specialize interests and expose the individual to potentially* 
*‘unknown artists.’ Now, airtime is infinite and everyone can listen to* 
*different variations of music patterns and find something that they* 
*‘really want.’* 

*Essentially, moving from ‘broad-casted culture’ offline to a ‘narrow-casted culture’ online.*

**Q:**   
**What does this potentially change about the concept of popular music** 
**being considered as ‘the sociocultural superglue of the masses?’** 

**Ali Partovi:** There  
will always be superstars. In fact, the internet can create even  
bigger stars than traditional broadcast media. What will be harder is  
trying to transform someone with marginal talent into a superstar, or  
to force the content you own down other people’s throats. But human  
nature thrives on shared experiences, and great talent will spread  
faster and wider than ever on the backs of people sharing it.

*For a really* 
*long time the music industry has had the mindset that they would pay* 
*money to be on Clear Channel or MTV. The modern day equivalent to this* 
*might be where sites like Jango and Grooveshark have recently and* 
*openly embraced the model of ‘pay for airplay.’*

**Q:**   
**What are your thoughts on the ‘pay for airplay’ business model and what** 
**implications might arise for the services that implement it?**
  
  
**Ali Partovi:**   
I’ve actually always been a fan of “pay-for-play” as long as there are  
two things: first, disclosure so that the consumer knows what’s  
editorially selected and what’s not, and second, a feedback loop so  
that it gets more and more expensive to promote something that nobody  
seems to like (and cheaper to promote something that everything seems  
to like). This is exactly how Google Adwords works. At iLike, we’ve  
implemented a self-service model where tons of artists, labels, and  
promoters, are now paying us to promote their new releases and their  
local events.

*The CD-Release*  
*Complex is a term I’ve used previously to describe the symbiotic*  
*relationship between the fans and the corporate institutions they*  
*relied upon to deliver new music. It is the backbone of the modern*  
*Recording Industry, one built around the idea that music fans discover*  
*music through the same mediums that records labels use to promote music.*  

*However,* 
*throughout the mechanization of this industry, what used to be* 
*“extensions of fan” undoubtedly transformed into “extensions of man.”* 
*Meaning that, the mediums themselves, such as broadcast radio, have* 
*progressively become less beneficial to music fans and no longer* 
*operate within their best interest.*

**Q:** **How does iLike model itself as an “extension of fan” and maintain a symbiotic relationship that benefits everyone involved?**

**Ali Partovi:** The  
consumer is king. The only way to succeed on the Internet is to put the  
fans’ interests first. We’ve aimed to build a service that represents  
the interests of consumers, artists, and labels. And at the end of the  
day, the labels or artists who succeed on iLike and elsewhere on the  
internet will be the ones that put the fans’ interests first. For  
example, we let the artist (or label) choose whether to make their  
music available as a free MP3, a free stream, a 90-sec stream, a 30-sec  
stream, or not at all. The artist/label gets 100% control of how their  
music is used, and the consumer tends to reward the ones who are most  
fan-friendly. We consistently see that artists who make their music  
available as full-song streams sell more downloads and more tickets  
than those who restrict it to 30-sec samples. As I like to put it, “The  
love you take is equal to the love you make.”