MUMBAI: Announcing a new version of Google Play Music, Google’s music-subscription service will try to anticipate its listeners’ mood swings. This follows the acquisition of Songza which has about five million subscribers, whose technology will be integrated in Google music as it tries to compete with Pandora, Spotify and other popular services that play tunes over the Internet.
The service that started on 21 October will make music suggestions based on curated guesses by Songza. The $10-a-month All Access service will try to understand each subscriber’s mood and likely activities at certain points in the day or week.
This technology involves the service to comprehend that on a Monday morning, a subscriber who opens the service on a smartphone might be offered a playlist suited for commuting, going to the gym or getting motivated for work. Opening the app on Monday evening, though, might generate songs appropriate for eating dinner, studying or unwinding.
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The feature will not be available outside U.S. and Canada for a while and will be accessible to only the All Access subscribers. The updated version will contain six different music mixes created for different emotions, tastes and activities – with such labels as ‘Jumping Out of Bed’ or ‘In The Lonely Hour’. These will be automatically displayed and will not play unless the subscriber selects one.
Besides, subscribers can also request playlists designed for specific activities such as napping or housecleaning. These several thousand playlists have been assembled by Songza music enthusiasts including DJs, performers and critics.
Google Play Music Product Manager Brandon Bilinski said, “The content is roughly the same (as Pandora or Spotify), so the main thing you can do for a user now is to have the right context. We want to get our listeners to the right music to fit the mood and make them feel good.”
Google’s All Access service launch just 17 months ago, leaving the company that runs the Internet’s dominant search engine and other leading digital services in the unfamiliar position of trying to catch up.
Bilinski added, “We can be smart about a lot of things, but it’s really hard to tell a person’s mood.”
