Google Acquires Curated Music Service Songza

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Google Acquires Curated Music Service Songza

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday July 2, 2014 @03:36AM from the all-manowar-all-the-time dept.

mpicpp (3454017) writes with news that Google is expanding its online music services through acquisition. From the article: Songza focuses on playlists curated by music experts that are designed for specific activities or occasions and then suggested to specific listeners based on seven points of context: day of week, time of day, the device used being used, weather, location, what the particular listener has done before with the service considering those previous five points, and then what all other Songza listeners have done before given the first five context points.

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What? by Neruocomp · 2014-07-02 03:37 · Score: 1

What is Songza?

--
Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it
1. Re:What? by timrod · 2014-07-02 03:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  From the article, it's apparently an online radio service, similar to Pandora or Spotify, except instead of using machine-based algorithms to determine what you might like, it uses lists made by "music experts" based on criteria you give it. I hadn't heard of it before the article, but I might take a look when I get home from work.
2. Re:What? by Major+Ralph · 2014-07-02 03:46 · Score: 1
  
  Same, it sounds like it could be pretty neat. Though I wonder what they consider to be a "music expert."
  
  --
  I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
3. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 03:56 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  That kid in the back of the class with his headphones on.
4. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 03:56 · Score: 0
  
  it's pretty great, just find a few playlists you like and favorite them; rinse and repeat type of radio essentially
5. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 03:57 · Score: 0
  
  My biggest beef with streaming services with this is how little on average they pay the artists.
  It used to be that a musician could live from what they made from CDs. One could sell a few CDs at a gig and make enough cash to keep the gas in the band's van. Individual tracks came along and turned a $10.00 sale into 99 cents. Now, with streaming, artists earn a fraction of a penny per play.
  I wish more bands would stick to their guns like Tool and only offer their album as a gestalt. Buy the album or pirate it. It at least means that each sale is a non-trivial amount. A fraction of a penny isn't even worth the time.
6. Re:What? by BForrester · 2014-07-02 04:03 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  What is Songza?
  I don't know how popular it is as a browser-based service, but it's a very popular mobile app. Particularly when linked through home media systems, it allows a user to very quickly jump to a playlist based on a desired genre, activity, or mood.
  Activities examples:
  BBQ
  Breaking Up
  Driving in the Left Lane
  Gaming
  Getting High
  Making Out
  Unwinding after work
7. Re:What? by timrod · 2014-07-02 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  I'd imagine it's one of those people on any given popular music torrent site that do things like make absurdly large vinyl rips (I've seen vinyl rips in FLAC where each track is upwards of 350MB) using specific hardware that no one's ever heard of and complain about CDs because they were pressed using the Japanese method instead of the German one.
8. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  What is Songza?
  A soon to be ruined music system which will be augmented to give Google more of your data, extend their advertising business, and be one more step into the evolution of Google as the evil empire it's been trying to become for years now.
  Whatever it is, the fact that Google is buying it means it will be pretty much destroyed as it is now.
  And, they'll be updating the EULA/ToS to make sure they own your data in perpetuity and anything evil and asshole-ish their lawyers can think of.
9. Re:What? by Cryacin · 2014-07-02 04:08 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  So what soundtrack does it suggest to play whilst announcing another non-profitable acquisition?
  
  --
  Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
10. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:22 · Score: 0
  
  "Individual tracks came along and turned a $10.00 sale into 99 cents."
  Only if you only have one good song on the album. The thing I used to hate the most was paying $15 or more for a CD that out of 15 tracks, 12 of them were GARBAGE. So I was paying $5 per GOOD song. Fuck that shit. What "Pay-per-track" does is it forces the artists to put out good stuff. If you put out crap, it does not sell, which is as it should be.
11. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:45 · Score: 0
  
  It's right there in the summary. But I guess it's funnier to prove the point that since you've never heard of it, it doesn't matter. Or maybe you actually want to spend time reading through answers to the question here instead of typing the name into Google for more information.
12. Re:What? by Nexzus · 2014-07-02 04:46 · Score: 1
  
  I'll add, of the three: Pandora, Spotify and Songza, only Songza is [easily] available in Canada.
  
  --
  Karma: Can only be portioned out by the Cosmos.
13. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 05:04 · Score: 0
  
  BBQ
  Check
  
  Breaking Up
  
  Driving in the Left Lane
  Check
  
  Gaming
  Check
  
  Getting High
  Check
  
  Making Out
  Check
  
  Unwinding after work
  Check.
  
  You now have me interested in this service!
  
  Posting AC because Americans are still pretty irrational about getting high.
14. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 05:54 · Score: 0
  
  > (I've seen vinyl rips in FLAC where each track is upwards of 350MB)
  That's a stretch.
  192Khz * 24-bit = 576KB/s = ~35MB/min
  350MB would be 10 minutes long uncompressed
15. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 06:01 · Score: 0
  
  non-profitable? They can use this acquisition to drive traffic and sales to the google play music store. I love songza and google play music for different things, but now they will be one in the same
16. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 06:10 · Score: 0
  
  Songza appears to be a service that focuses on playlists curated by music experts that are designed for specific activities or occasions and then suggested to specific listeners based on seven points of context: day of week, time of day, the device used being used, weather, location, what the particular listener has done before with the service considering those previous five points, and then what all other Songza listeners have done before given the first five context points.
17. Re:What? by ottothecow · 2014-07-02 06:26 · Score: 1
  
  It's a pretty decent thing...although Spotify basically already has this. There are various "mood" based playlist options (like "Girls Night" "Lazy Chill Afternoon" "Indie Workout") as well as the ability to subscribe to other people's playlists (and there, you know who made it rather than "crafted by a songza expert"...e.g. you can listen to the Napster founder's playlists). Plus, you get the full power of spotify...so if you find a song on there that you like, you can directly add it to a playlist or go stream the whole album.
  Songza forces you into the "radio" model where you can't actually pick songs...but it has a wider playlist variety. For instance, you can choose "Music for Working in an Office". From there you have a five choices like "Indie Music That's Not Too Weird" or "Easy, Breezy Summer Songs". Each of those has a few more choices underneath it--Under the Indie category, you get "Songs From Apple Commercials", "Mainstream Indie", and "Sunshine Indie Pop". This is a lot more than you get from Spotify. So you lose the direct song-level access, but you can really find playlists that fit what you want.
  Its a good idea though. I've certainly tried to curate pandora/spotify radio playlists in a similar way, such as trying to create something that resembles a "Happy Summer" station rather than a "Sounds like XYZ Band" station. My guess is that Google will try to integrate it into their own Spotify competitor (Play Music). Works for them in two ways: enhances features for the paid service and attracts free songza users to the paid service (Want direct track control? Want to hear this whole album? Try Google Play Music free for 30 days)
  
  --
  Bottles.
18. Re:What? by timrod · 2014-07-02 06:36 · Score: 2
  
  I actually gave it a try at lunch on my tablet. The home screen on the site told me that it was Wednesday afternoon and gave me five suggestions, the first of which was essentially a "Top 40" list. I'm not into Top 40, so I tried the second one, which was I think "Energetic Songs". It gave me I think five playlist suggestions, two of which were "Twerk at Work" and some other thing related to twerking. The others were pop dance songs.
  I wound up trying "Popular Indie", and getting a Jay Z song (apparently A-list rappers are indie now) and then more twerking songs.
  So, in summary, this is probably great if your job somehow involves twerking, but I don't know how good it is for people like me.
19. Re:What? by aitikin · 2014-07-02 07:03 · Score: 1
  
  > (I've seen vinyl rips in FLAC where each track is upwards of 350MB)
  That's a stretch.
  192Khz * 24-bit = 576KB/s = ~35MB/min
  350MB would be 10 minutes long uncompressed
  That's for one track, not stereo. It would actually be about 69.12 MB/min or 4.14 GB/hr uncompressed, so, using conservative estimates, 3.105GB/hr FLAC.
  Most people are wise enough not to bother with 192KHz, although some could argue for 96KHz, which still puts you at about half of the figures I stated above for a stereo track. 350MB is a 35 minute album done in 44.1KHz/16 bit at uncompressed or likely 44.1KHz and 24 bit done in FLAC or with really good FLAC compression, 48 KHz/24 bit.
  This brings up a quick question for the GP, Joe, with the size of hard drives/solid state these days, why should you be so worried about file size? Audio quality makes a big difference in both perception and experience. 350MB for a high quality (audio quality not necessarily musical) album is a better way to enjoy a good (musical) album than a crummy 256 kbps MP3.
  
  --
  "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
20. Re:What? by timrod · 2014-07-02 08:18 · Score: 1
  
  The big reason would be that my mp3 player (I don't have a smartphone and my tablet has been declared 'too big for the gym") can't play FLAC files of that size. My tablet can, and my PC can, but the mp3 player just isn't strong enough to handle it. Really, it's only a problem because I don't have a smartphone.
21. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 17:07 · Score: 0
  
  LOL @ "music experts". I bet all of the playlists are filled with crap like the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Pink Floyd and other "classic" shit musicians along with the shitty mainstream staples of today like Kanye and Lady Gaga.
22. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 17:10 · Score: 0
  
  And? You don't have any music that is ten minutes or longer? Most of mine is, some being upwards of an hour or more.
  I guess you just listen to the same three minute teen pop garbage over and over.
23. Re:What? by IllogicalStudent · 2014-07-02 17:32 · Score: 1
  
  From the article, it's apparently an online radio service, similar to Pandora or Spotify, except for the fact that it works in Canada.
  There, FIFW. Google had better not break the one service we can reliably use up here without jumping through proxy hoops, or a bunch of us'll be pissed. I'm preparing the maple syrup cannons, just in case, eh?
  
  --
  But Maaa! Everyone else has a .sig !
24. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 17:34 · Score: 0
  
  #$#$%!, FIFY . stupid me. See, messing up acronyms only happens when I'm mad.
25. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-03 00:27 · Score: 0
  
  BS. FLAC decoding takes less performance than decoding an MP3. My Creative MP3 player handles FLAC fine. Yours is just a piece of shit.
26. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-05 03:33 · Score: 0
  
  I've used Songza for quite a while and really like it. It's good for exploring music by genre. I wanted to boost my funk repertoire, so went and listened to some funk channels. But then I also wanted to go learn about some more prog metal bands, and went and listened to prog metal channels. They had some very credible selections there, and I also go to learn about some new bands. (I'm not sure about the quality of the indie and twerking channels....)
Sounds Just like 8 tracks... by gunner_von_diamond · 2014-07-02 03:48 · Score: 0

8tracks has human created playlists as well, but I guess that wasn't good enough for google. They wanted playlists created by "music experts". What qualifies someone as a music expert?
1. Re:Sounds Just like 8 tracks... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 03:53 · Score: 0
  
  penis size
2. Re:Sounds Just like 8 tracks... by TheSeeker11 · 2014-07-02 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  What qualifies someone as a music expert?
  Amount of cardigans owned.
Songle by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 03:59 · Score: 0

I have been using Songza for about a year now and while I can't say the music is curated by "experts" I can say that I love the service and that I've discovered new (and old) music that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Awesome for parties too...except for the twerk tapes playlist...stay away from that. I generally think things touched by google end up a bit better off, though that's not always the case. Please overlord Google, don't fix what ain't broken.
1. Re:Songle by Bohnanza · 2014-07-02 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  I have recently become a heavy user of Songza, and one of the best features is the lack of ad breaks. I expect this to change pretty soon.
  
  --
  -----
  Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
google kiss of death by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:01 · Score: 0

I had never heard of it. Sounds like a good service. I would start using it except now that google has bought it surely it'll be gone in 2 years.
1. Re:google kiss of death by tuppe666 · 2014-07-02 06:04 · Score: 1
  
  I had never heard of it. Sounds like a good service. I would start using it except now that google has bought it surely it'll be gone in 2 years.
  Yes like YouTube, Android where are they?
Feng Shui by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:07 · Score: 0

Goddamn Feng Shui for music. Fucking pathetic.
the device used being used by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:19 · Score: 0

"the device used being used" WTF???
Fuck Google by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:24 · Score: 0

Fuck all these scumbag corporations who swallow up creativity and real innovation in order to further their agenda of endless greed and customer lock in.
Shame by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:37 · Score: 0

I liked Songza. Guess its going away in the future.
no thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 04:45 · Score: 0

yet another app i'll never use, along with last.fm, pandora, songify, etc
Nothing new by SigmundFloyd · 2014-07-02 05:02 · Score: 2

We're Google: Give us every detail of your life for a song.

--
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
1. Re:Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 05:37 · Score: 0
  
  i like how Songza's PR statement talks about users trust... fuckers.
Change the name, Google! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-07-02 05:26 · Score: 1

'Google Songza' is certainly catchier than 'Google Play Music All Access'.
Location is a factor too? by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2014-07-02 05:46 · Score: 2

I dumped all other music providers about a year ago and now use Songza, particularly since it's mostly ad-free (and easy to download the streams). However, I've noticed that Songza's suggestions also seem to be location-based: when I'm at home in the sticks, I see a lot of country music suggestions, but when I'm in my office in the city, I mostly see rap and R&B suggestions.
Bah. by ArtFart · 2014-07-02 05:49 · Score: 2

Just another opportunity for the Pigopolists to try to tell me what I'm supposed to like. Screw 'em.