Social music sharing app Nwplyng shutting down

#nwplyng, a social music-sharing app with a gamification feature that enabled users to check in while listening to music and share it with friends on social networking sites, is shutting down.

"We don't get too many downloads for our apps. So we decided to shut it down," #nwplyng founder Utsav Agarwal told Techcircle.in. Agarwal said that he is now exploring other opportunities. "Marketplace is something which I am interested in. However, nothing concrete has come up yet. I will let you know when I start something."

The development was first reported by NextBigWhat.

#nwplyng music app is like what Foursquare is for places and GetGlue for movies and TV shows. With each check-in, the user has the option to add context through a YouTube video, location, picture and comments. A free app, #nwplyng is currently available on Android devices. When checked last, the app has registered 10,000-15,000 downloads on Android platform.

#nwplyng was founded in April 2012 and is owned & operated by Nwplyng Pvt Ltd. The firm was incubated by Kochi-based Startup Village, and had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Kerala-based mobile VAS player MobMe Wireless last year.

Agarwal holds a B Tech degree in production engineering from Mumbai's DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering. Prior to setting up Nwplyng, Agarwal worked in the music business by managing a couple of local bands from Mumbai. Previously, he produced a pub rock festival Sharktooth LiveStorms with Bombay Rock Association (bRA), handled marketing and events for EMI Music and social media and marketing for numerous artistes at FanManager, apart from a stint at William Morris Endeavour and Business Development at TAG Strategic.

In February this year, India- and US-based social music streaming service Dhingana had shut down. However, the company was acquired by San Francisco-based digital music service Rdio last month.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)