We Are Hunted
TypeSubsidiary of Twitter
IndustryMusic
Internet
FoundedApril 2009- April 2013
Defunct2013
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California
Key people
Stephen Phillips, Founder/CTO

Richard Slatter, Founder/COO Michael Doherty, Engineer Adrian McLean, Designer/Editor Ben Novakovic, Engineer Ben Johnston, Founder/CPO

Jess Huddart, CDO
ProductsOnline music aggregation
Number of employees
10
Websitewearehunted.com

We Are Hunted was a Brisbane based software company that developed proprietary search technology which continuously scanned the Internet to identify the hottest new music in the world. The company was founded by Stephen Phillips, Richard Slatter, Michael Doherty and Josephmark in 2007.[1]

The service provided a constant stream of new music, delivered in a simple, tile-based user interface.

We Are Hunted was originally owned and operated by Hunted Media, a web services company based in San Francisco, California. In late 2012, Twitter acquired the company, announcing plans to turn the platform into a new product called Twitter Music in early 2013.[2]

Music Charts

We Are Hunted was best known for its emerging music chart. The chart provided a continually updated list of the best new songs in the world, as measured by popularity on music blogs and social media. We Are Hunted also charted the most popular mainstream and top 40 artists in the world, and published music charts in a range of genres from electronic to metal.

Technology

The We Are Hunted service was powered by a proprietary software system. The platform enabled data aggregation, machine learning and content recommendation services. The system generated the music charts, powered the dynamic playlists, and delivered detailed analytics and reporting. The platform indexed approximately 100,000 music articles and 40 million music related tweets each month. It actively monitored YouTube and the Facebook graph for artist activity. The service used an open source stack including Linux, Apache, Nginx, Python, Sphinx, Postgres, Django, Redis, Twisted, and more.

Team

The core team responsible for the development of We Are Hunted was led by Stephen Phillips and Richard Slatter and included, Michael Doherty, Adrian McLean, and Ben Novakovic. UI/UX design was led by Jessica Huddart of Josephmark. Several other people have contributed greatly to the development of the service including Genevieve Robey, Russell Keith-Magee, David Novakovic, Mitch Malone, Nathan Oorloff, Jack Murphy, Ryan Blunden, Tom Knox, Eoin McCarthy, Simon Litchfield and the team at Josephmark.

The company was backed by Graeme Wood, the successful Australian Internet entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Hunted Media provided fee for service web and mobile development services to support the ongoing development of the We Are Hunted service. The Hunted Media team had established a reputation in the digital music industry as an app development powerhouse working with companies like MySpace, MTV, Sony, eMusic, SiriusXM, Condé Nast and The Echonest.

Launch

The site was launched on 17 April 2009. It was featured on popular online technology blogs Wired,[3] TechCrunch,[4] Mashable[5] and TechNation.[6] We Are Hunted received over 100,000 visits in its first week online.[7]

We Are Hunted was initially created and developed in Brisbane, Australia. The website concept arose from a discussion between founders Nick Crocker and Ben Johnston in early 2008.[7] Crocker met Stephen Phillips, the founder of Australian news search engine Wotnews, in November 2008. After this initial meeting, Crocker and Phillips decided to work together to bring the idea to life. Crocker and Johnston finalised the site concept, developed the brand name and logo, and designed the first version of the user interface. The Wotnews technical team then, over several weeks, created the first version of the site, including the core music intelligence platform and innovative website interface. Six weeks after launch, the site was purchased by Wotnews from Native Digital. Wotnews was eventually rebranded Hunted Media. Since mid 2009, We Are Hunted been a web property developed and managed 100% by the Hunted Media team.

New Version

The Hunted Media team relocated to San Francisco and was working on the third version of the We Are Hunted service. On Thursday 11 April 2013 Hunted Media announced they were shutting down their website due to Twitter acquiring the company. All user accounts were shut down following this. However this public announcement led to Twitter Inc launching their music service by launching their music website #music Their new music service was launched under the website wonder.fm Wonder was retired in September 2017.[8]

Notes

  1. ↑ "we are hunted founded - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  2. ↑ Newton, Casey. "Twitter acquires We Are Hunted, readies standalone music app". p. CNET News. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  3. ↑ Buskirk, Eliot Van. "Sneak Preview: A Fantastic New Way to Find Hot Music". Wired. Wired.com. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
  4. ↑ "Forget Billboard. We Are Hunted Charts The Music People Are Listening To On The Web". TechCrunch.com. 17 April 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  5. ↑ "We Are Hunted: A Social Formula for Finding Great Music". Mashable.com. 17 April 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  6. ↑ "We Are Hunted - This Generation's Music Chart". TechNation.com.au. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  7. 1 2 "My Thoughts On The Launch Of We Are Hunted". Waycooljnr.com.au. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  8. ↑ Wonder by Hydric Media
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