Android App of the Day: Songza
Remember long ago when you took the time to hand-pick certain songs to record and then create a mix tape for that special someone? Or maybe you made a mix tape for when that special someone dumped you and you needed to create an “I hate you Sally” mix-tape. Sadly, the days of creating mix tapes are a thing of the past and have since been replaced with music streaming services like Pandora, Last.fm, and Spotify. Sure you can pick a genre, artist, or song type but whatever happened to mood music? That’s where Songza comes in.
Songza aims at offering its users a curated hand-picked Internet radio service. While you can’t listen to a specific song on demand, you don’t have to worry about any fees or monthly song limits. One of the best features of Songza, unlike Pandora, is that you won’t be bothered by those annoying audio advertisements. What truly sets Songza apart from the competition is that this app focuses on creating unique “peer-created” playlists for you and whatever mood you might be in at that moment.
Pros:
- 100% free.
- No audio advertisements
- No monthly listening limit
- Browse a curated playlist library organized by activity, genre, decade, & mood
- Stream thousands of original playlists handmade by music experts
- Save your favorite playlists & share them via Facebook or email
- Always have the right music for your moments
- Buffering between songs and playlists is smooth
- Like songs to improve your personal experience
Cons:
- Six song skip limit per hour
- Need a quit or exit button without having to go to settings
- Concierge This is like having your own personal music butler. Tap on the Concierge button and at the top you will see a greeting specific to whatever day it is. For example: “It’s Wednesday morning. Play music for:” You can then select from the categories shown below. You can either select music for working out, morning commute, waking up, feeling confident, singing in the shower, or popular genres. Tapping on a category will present you with specific genres, and from there you can select a playlist. The concierge feature is one of my favorites, as I have yet to see this on any other music app out there. Besides, who doesn’t love a little concierge service now and then?
- My Playlists As you familiarize yourself with Songza you can save playlists under customized names to go back to at anytime. Tapping on My Playlists will display all of your recent playlists or your favorites. This saves time if you know exactly what you are in the mood for and don’t want to go through the app having to search for it.
- Popular This is useful for anyone who wants to access well-known artists and songs. The Popular feature is broken down into featured, trending, and all-time playlists.
- Explore This feature is extremely helpful for when you are first familiarizing yourself with the service. You can utilize the search bar at the top to look for a playlist by artist, song, keyword, or mood. I have yet to stump the search function as it always comes up with a variety of related playlists. Below the search bar you can explore and discover by categories including: genre, activities, moods, decades, culture, record-store clerk, and just for you. I love the just for you feature as it has taken all the songs you have rated (liked or disliked) throughout your Songza history and offers up a curated playlists made specifically to your tastes.
Songza is available for free in the Google Play Store. Requires Android 2.1 and higher. Play Link
This is part of our Android App of the Day series. We take our favorite app for Android for each day and post it here for you to check out. Feel free to check out all of our App of the Day posts here.
Nothing will compare to sitting by your radio, waiting for the next song to come on so you can record it. No app can replace that anticipation 😀