Hangout is a new service that wants to make enjoying music more of a social experience. The platform, from Turntable Labs, is available on iOS, Android and the Web. At launch, Hangout offers more than 100 million songs, available to stream globally as a result of deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group as well as indie rights group Merlin. Users can select an avatar and invite friends to their personal ‘hangout’ space, taking turns playing songs from their favorite artists in the virtual DJ booth.

Turntable describes Hangout as “a new virtual listening community connecting users through music discovery and curation,” per its announcement. Hangout hopes “to redefine the intersection of music and social media,” founder and CEO Joseph Perla said, explaining the goal is to “create a platform that celebrates the joy of music but also helps support the music industry.”

Billboard reports “the idea is simple: People set up listening rooms and play music for guests. The DJs are represented by avatars on stage, standing aside turntables and moving to the rhythm of the music, while listeners’ avatars face the stage, only the back of their bobbing heads visible.”

Hangout offers “premium subscriptions that eliminate advertisements, while an avatar store will be another source of revenue,” according to Billboard.

The concept, Billboard says, is reminiscent of Turntable.fm, “a website that charmed listeners with its cartoonish and communal approach to streaming music.” After co-founding Turntable.fm, Perla went on to work at Facebook and Lyft.

Engadget explains that Hangout “not only functions like the old-school Turntable.fm, it even looks the same. There’s a stage, record players and cartoon avatars.” Participants “take turns playing DJ,” with “room for five people at the same time to play a game of round robin with their favorite songs.”

Turntable Labs says the concept “draws inspiration from traditional social music experiences like gathering around a jukebox or listening to albums with friends,” but transforms the interaction by connecting users globally, writes Music Business Worldwide.