Echo Networks has announced has developed technology that enables its members to create "group stations" where members experience a simultaneous stream of mainstream music that directly reflects the group's aggregated song ratings. Through a player that requires no downloading, Echo members rate music, chat with other members of their group stations, vote on songs playing, and invite others to listen.

"For the first time, our technology makes it possible to hang out and listen to music with your friends even when they're not physically present," said Dan Hart, Co-founder and CEO of Echo Networks, which recently outgrew its Silicon Valley digs and set-up shop in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA multi-media district. "Our unprecedented user growth during beta reflects the fact that we are the first to apply the web's most viral, sticky and addictive community models to streaming music."

"Our engineering team overcame some big hurdles to develop this," said Neil Berkman, Chief Architect and Co-founder of Echo Networks. "This application is very significant because it solves long-standing problems in the area of streaming media to enable truly synchronous listening in the context of dynamically changing groups of Internet users," adds Berkman.

There used to be a less-tech word for this, way back when  a fan club.