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Google Acquires Curated Music Service Songza
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.
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.
That kid in the back of the class with his headphones on.
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
So what soundtrack does it suggest to play whilst announcing another non-profitable acquisition?
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
We're Google: Give us every detail of your life for a song.
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
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.
Just another opportunity for the Pigopolists to try to tell me what I'm supposed to like. Screw 'em.
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.