Normally, “Beats” makes one think about the uber-popular line of headphones, earbuds and portable speakers manufactured by Monster — overpriced and overhyped, but constantly in demand.
But Monday, that same company released its Beats Music app on iOS and Android, and with it, the smartest computer DJ since Pandora Radio launched in 2005.
The app starts simple enough — sign up or log in with Facebook or Twitter. But then the app delves into your personal music tastes.
You’ll be asked to pick your favorite and least favorite genres of music, then your favorite and least favorite artists from those genres.
That’s all the app needs to help you discover new music. And it isn’t predictably boring like Spotify or seemingly random at times like Pandora or iTunes Radio, it’s actual music discovery.
The best feature — called “The Sentence” — has you fill in the blanks in a sentence to try and pick a song for you (see the photos at the top of the article for examples).
And it manages, somehow, to pick a song that actually fits that sentence. One time I listened to a song akin to zombies playing smooth jazz — which was exactly what my sentence included.
It’s definitely a gimmick — but it works…most of the time.
I really can’t tell you exactly how accurate the service is because, well, it hasn’t worked for me since the first time I opened the app. Beats Music is either really popular, slowing server speeds to a near-crawl, or the app is simply broken. I’m not entirely sure which it is because, again, I can’t actually get it to work.
Regardless, the service made enough of an initial impression on me to seriously consider canceling my Spotify subscription.
Don’t get me wrong — Spotify is great, but it’s discovery feature leaves a lot to be desired. Every time I open the app, I’m overwhelmed with the choices given to me, so I default to music I already know.
But Beats Music aims to change that. It takes the best part of Spotify — sheer volume of music — and pairs it with discovery features that help you sort through that library to find what you want.
As long as you pay $9.99 a month.
Yeah. That’s a big black mark on an otherwise great service. Almost every other music streaming service has some kind of free, ad-supported option.
But not Beats Music.
Beats Music doesn’t care about your wallet. Maybe that’s not surprising coming from Monster, a company that charges $199 for on-the-ear headphones that only increase bass reproduction. Or, a company that charges $50 for HDMI cables that are almost the exact same as the $5 version. (Seriously, don’t pay for Monster cables — they’re a rip-off.)
Or maybe it’s the same company that doesn’t care if it charges for a service because it made $519 in revenue in 2012 off of headphones.
Beats Music’s discovery features are a game changer for streaming services everywhere. And it could unseat Spotify in the long run — if it gets its act together.
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Tech with Taylor is back a week late (sorry about that), but I’ll be posting every Thursday for the rest of the semester! So make sure to keep it tuned to right here for the latest news, reviews and updates in the world of tech.
