Yesterday I was programming for about 24 hours straight in the UT business school’s computer lab when I realized I had forgotten to charge my iPod. Then I realized that I couldn’t use Pandora in the computer lab. I was really disappointed until I remembered Musicovery. I used it a few times a couple of years ago, but not much since then. Last night I became fairly familiar with it as I programmed into the wee hours of the morning
Everyone’s heard of Pandora, but what about Musicovery? Musicovery defines itself as “interactive webRadio.” It allows you to listen to a music channel based on your mood, specified genre(s), and a specified time period. You pick something in between four different moods: Energetic, calm, positive, and dark. Then you pick a genre and a time period. I find it a little difficult to find a balance that includes songs and artists that I like. But once I find that sweet spot, it’s really cool.
I also find the genres to be a bit off sometimes. For example, I selected “folk” and chose 2000s as the time period, and Musicovery pulled up some music that I wouldn’t really consider folk. While I was expecting to hear music similar to artists such as Jose Gonzalez, it instead played songs from artists like John Mayer. I guess I can see how some of John Mayer’s music could be categorized as folk, but it specifically had “Your Body is a Wonderland” in the Folk genre. I always thought John Mayer was classified as Pop music.
The coolest feature is the “Discovery” button. It plays music from lesser known artists, and I like to use Musicovery as a tool for finding new music that I might like. Overall, Musicovery is a great free music listening service. You can pay a premium for more features, but lets hope that the basic features remain free of charge.