• Betabeat, Friday, July 8, 2011 10:56 AM

Social music service Turntable.fm is closing in on $5 milllion-to-$10 million in additional funding at a $40 million valuation, reports Observer.com's Betabeat, citing multiple sources. The hot start-up, which previously pursued an entirely different strategy under the name Stickybits, seems to have executed what Betabeat calls the perfect "pivot" -- whereby start-ups shift direction to varying degrees.

Betabeat describes the pivot process as integral to the success -- and, in some instances, the failure - of many a tech start-up.

"Investors are looking to cut the company fat checks, and Facebook is sweating about the platform's viral growth while struggling to get its own social music app launched with Spotify," Betabeat writes. Meanwhile, streaming music service Pandora recently filed for its IPO, "giving hope to a young company like Turntable.fm that a big payday awaits at the end of a tough road."

Read the whole story at Betabeat »