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Echo Nest is the man behind the Spotify Radio curtain
The Music Genome Project is in some serious trouble. The fancy algorithm behind Pandora is facing an increasingly popular competitor in the form of Echo Nest. The company's "music intelligence platform" and its accompanying API are already powering iHeartRadio and Nokia Music's Mix Radio. Now it's getting baked into the streaming media service du jour -- Spotify. Echo Nest's capable automated mix-making was already available to Spotify users via Echofi, but now the Swedish media company is using the tech as the basis for its updated radio service. Check out the PR after the break for a few not-so-subtle jabs at Pandora and its restrictions on free users.
Pandora's song-finding flair comes to Spotify, IHeartRadio via separate initiatives
Ruh roh. That's the sound emanating from Pandora's stock price, which has taken a serious beating in the wake of two separate announcements in the past week. First off, Clear Channel and Echo Nest have teamed up to produce a self-proclaimed "Pandora killer," with a new technology enabling IHeartRadio users to build out customized radio stations right on the app. As you'd expect, folks will be able to construct a custom playlist "based off the selection of a single seed song or artist, both online and on mobile phones," and it'll be featured when the app relaunches in beta form this week. In related news, Echo Nest has also concocted a Pandora-esque streaming radio feature for use in the Spotify app; it's a gem called Echofi, and if you surf down to the source link, you'll be able to give it a whirl. Type in a single artist, mash go, and watch as Spotify is launched and related music is spun until you decide you've heard enough. Here's to competition... right?
