It started because the internet felt too quiet. Or maybe too empty. Not visually, that’s for sure. More like a deserted mall that’s full of ads and mannequins but missing the real people. An easy place to spend money but an exhausting one to spend time. And surprisingly, a place that makes it very difficult to listen to music and just talk to each other. Especially if you’re old enough to remember that we built it by plugging our computers into the phone lines.
My co-founder Matt and I felt this emptiness, and we started building. We filled the empty space with music and our voices and funny sound effects. Things that made it feel like two grown-ass dudes had an excuse to sit purposelessly on a digital phone call for hours. A way for us to send playlists back and forth and pass the aux cord to our friends from miles away. We found investors who believed in us and we put an incredible team together.
And today, Roadtrip is live in the App Store. It’s a place to listen to music, talk, catch up with friends, and meet new people. It’s also available right in your web browser - share a link to a room from the app and you can join from anywhere.
Invite some friends, connect a playlist, and hop in. There are no cameras - no one will judge how you’re looking or whether your ring light is turned on. Embrace not having an agenda: that feeling of intentional aimlessness we lost when we turned every interaction into a fucking Zoom meeting.
Roadtrip is your friend’s basement, the couch in your parents’ living room, the coffee shop that you spend all day in because being productive is only fun when you get to hear other people. It’s that moment in the car ride when you realize it’s not a bad thing that you’re hours from your destination. And a reminder that everything is so much better with background music.
Bring good tunes and good vibes. We’ll see you there.
This launch is the culmination of months of work, but we’re just getting started. If you want to hear about major updates, listening parties, and receive the occasional mixtape in your inbox, we’d really appreciate a sub.