GRAI buys Turntable.fm successor Hangout to build social music streaming

What's the deal? GRAIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an AI music company based in Warsaw, has acquired HangoutDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the social music platform built by the creators of Turntable.fm. The deal has closed; terms were not disclosed. GRAI plans to combine Hangout's social-listening insights with its own technology to build a streaming service where music "moves between people."

What's the endgame? GRAI wants to fix what it sees as streaming's core flaw: frictionless discovery that leaves listeners alone. It argues algorithmic loops narrow vast libraries into predictable bubbles, even as people spend over 20 hours a week with music.

Why now? The company says the shift finally has both demand and technology behind it. "The future of streaming is social and co-creative. It just needed two things: the demand and the technology. With today's AI, it now has both," said Andrei Avsievich, co-founder and president of GRAI.

Hangout's founder framed the acquisition as continuity. "I built Hangout to fix what's broken in online spaces," said Joseph Perla. "Integrating our work into GRAI is how we keep that core belief in human connection moving forward."

What about rights holders? GRAI says it is building with the industry rather than around it, so every play pays artists and songwriters. It will continue Hangout's partnerships with labels, publishers, and collecting societies. In August, it became one of the first two companies to license the patents of Music IP HoldingsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which cover using recorded music with AI.

GRAI was founded in 2025 by the team behind VochiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the AI video-editing app acquired by Pinterest. It has raised seed funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Inovo VCDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The service is set to launch soon, with a waitlist open.

The signal: GRAI is betting that social, co-creative listening — the model Turntable.fm pioneered in 2011 — is ready to scale with modern AI and proper licensing. The acquisition folds proven behavioural insight into a new attempt to make music a shared experience rather than a solo one.

Image credit: Hangout