Lovie Awards 2013 - Meet Hailo and Last.fm

The Lovie Awards took place in London's Old Street for it's third year, celebrating incredible tech pioneers from across Europe.

Creativepool was there to celebrate with the winners, thoroughly enjoying acceptance speeches from the likes of international guerilla photographer and artist JR, and the "father of WIFI" Vic Hayes.

Other winners included Digitas LBi, King.com, Nexus, Hailo, Last.fm, Ogilvy One, the FT, Stumbleupon, Iris Worldwide, the Guardian, R/GA, Harrods, Soundcloud, BBC, Wieden + Kennedy, Google Creative Lab and many more.

We were lucky enough to pull Hailo and Last.fm away from the free drinks for a quick chat.

Last.fm

Why is this Lovies win so important to Last.fm?

We have a big  fanbase in Europe so to be recognised here for a big award is really important. We were a German / English company back when we started so a win on home turf is even better.

What's challenged you in the last year? You can just pick one.

It's been plain sailing! Back at the beginning of the year we dialled back on streaming to our 8 core countires, as opposed to eveywhere in the world. We're a small team so had to focus on our most popular areas. It was disappointing as we had to let some users down. It was tough but we got through. but we're getting through it.

Anything exciting planned for the near future?

Actually yes, we've got two big product launches coming up in the next two weeks but we can't tell you anything more. It's the biggest thing we've had in years so we're really excited.

How do you think you're changing the industry?

The whole idea of discovering new artists and the underbelly away from the mainstream. 70% of our traffic goes to bands outside the top 100, so that says a lot about how we help people discover new music.

We really do push smaller and up and coming artists more so than radios that push major label content, which is great for some people, but the Last.fm user is more than your casual music listener, who wants to hunt down he lesser known.

Hailo

We caught two of the founding taxi drivers that made Hailo what it is.

Why is the Lovies so important to you?

Europe is a big focus for us. We already have a big market in Barcelona and Madrid and that  will be expanding further across Europe. Any exposure in these areas is great for us. We're also growing quickly in the US so maybe we'll be looking at the Webbys next!

What's your favourite thing about the Lovies?

The after party? It's a great chance to meet people from all over Europe and seeing different cultures coming together.

It's also that we're able to represent the UK and London as we were founded in London. The tech industry here is amazing so it's exciting to support it.

What's been your biggest challenge of the year?

It's probably launching in lots of different cities and maintaining the service we have in the countries we're already in. We have a great system so we're dealing with it well. It's a case of finding the balance between keeping things local and spreading them across the world.

What's going on in your plans for the future?

We're keeping things clost to our chest, but over the next 6 months there'll be big things coming up, outside of the taxi industry as well.

More images from the Lovie Awards 2013