A new music app called Trebel is looking to work it’s way into the cell phones of University of Maine students.
Trebel began with five schools and has since looked to expand, integrating their app into 20 new campuses.
Trebel Music, part of M&M Media, is gearing its content towards college students and encouraging interconnectivity among its users by allowing them to see the most popular songs and albums being played in their regions, as well as playlists made by friends.
“Trebel is for the college student that can’t afford to pay but wants total control over what they listen to,” Chief of Product Corey Jones said. “It’s the best free music download app out there that lets users pick and play their songs.”
Users pay for songs by watching ads that play when songs are downloaded. Users are required to watch for the duration of the ad, but will have the songs downloaded onto their phone upon completion. They earn coins that can be used to skip ads.
The app’s interface was designed by the daughters of CEO Gary Mekikan, Juliette and Grace. They wanted to make the app appeal to college students by giving it a new-age feel that would attract the younger generation.
“Trebel is built for millennials, by millenials,” Mekikian said. “It was important for us to put young people in charge of the design and function.”
Trebel’s parent company, M&M Media, began striking deals with major indie labels in 2014. This served as the beginning of Trebel Music and allowed them to release the initial wave of the app.
Trebel will be released to University of Maine students next week. Mekikian and Jones are both hopeful about the app’s adoption at UMaine and elsewhere.
“Maine is one of the larger and most socially active campuses in the region,” said Gary Mekikian said. “If you look at the profile of students here and compare it to schools where the app has already had success, we think adoption and engagement are likely to be high.”
The founders of Trebel Music will be working with Greek organizations and student life to spread the word about their app and encourage students to download it. They will be incentivizing the download of their app with a code for $20 off Lyft, a popular ridesharing service featured in large cities.
Trebel will be available to students at the University of Maine the week of Sept. 21.