Nokia Music joins the auto-playlist club, brings Pandora-like song-finding to Lumia 800
Smartphone owners have a lot of options for streaming music these days, and if a new challenger doesn't get off to a good start, it could easily get left in the dust. How is Nokia planning to keep up with the likes of Spotify and Pandora on its upcoming Windows Phone? By conscripting Echo Nest, the folks behind iHeartRadio and Spotify's own song-finding features, to pull the playlist picking strings behind Nokia Music's Mix Radio. Using a lightweight browser app, Mix Radio assesses your appetite for beats with a "taste profile" derived from your music library, and uses the data to generate personalized radio stations. The outfit is calling it the "most personalized global music service the world has ever seen." Nokia Music also offers 100 professionally programmed streaming stations and roughly 15 hours of downloadable programming. Echo Nest told us we'd hear more from Nokia itself soon, but if you just can't wait, hit the break for the song-picking puppet master's own press release.
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The Echo Nest Makes Music Personal on Every Nokia Lumia Smartphone
SOMERVILLE, MA, November 15, 2011 - The Echo Nest, a music intelligence platform powering smarter music apps across the web and devices, announced a landmark deal with Nokia today to pre-install a cutting-edge personalized streaming radio service on Nokia handsets. Nokia MixRadio, powered by The Echo Nest, streams fully-personalized radio that immediately understands a user's musical taste.
The Nokia Lumia 800 phone, running the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, will be first to include the groundbreaking Nokia Music app. The free app includes personalized MixRadio, an MP3 store, live concert recommendations, and more.
After a customer unboxes a Nokia Lumia smartphone, MixRadio analyzes the customer's digital music collection with a lightweight browser app to generate custom streaming radio stations on the phone. MixRadio builds an ever-evolving user taste profile to sculpt programming from Nokia's catalog of over 15 million songs. Based on the Taste Profile, MixRadio offers personalized stations in a variety of genres and allows users to make customized stations based on any artist or song. Under the hood, all of these features are powered by The Echo Nest's music intelligence platform.
"We're obsessed with understanding the entire world of music so we can enrich consumers' lives with a more meaningful listening experience," said Jim Lucchese, CEO of The Echo Nest. "Nokia's MixRadio unites our music intelligence platform with a beautiful device, delivering the most personalized global music service the world has ever seen. We are thrilled to be helping Nokia give millions of music fans this intelligent, personalized digital music experience."
In addition to MixRadio, the free, pre-installed Nokia Music app includes approximately 100 stations programmed by music experts and influencers. Users can stream any station on-demand, or download about 15 hours of programming onto their phones for offline playback.
Running on the well-reviewed Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, The Echo Nest-powered MixRadio feature, and Nokia's consummate hardware designs, Nokia Music gives the world's growing number ofsmartphone users an attractive new option.
