There’s a glut of online music streaming services battling for your social timeline. Spotify, Grooveshark, Last.fm and Rdio all exist to annoy your Facebook and Twitter friends with the latest tune you listened to and what you think everyone else needs to hear. It’s like cranking tunes in your bedroom as a teenager, except the echo-chamber is the entire online world. What’s better than indiscriminately forcing your musical taste on your drinking buddies, high school-aged cousins and accountant uncle?
“It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans” – Sloan (Song: Coax Me)
A new music streaming service product is in Beta testing, called This Is My Jam. Thanks to an invite from ninakix (who is wicked smart), we’ve been exploring how people are answering “What’s your favorite song right now?” It’s a simple question, but one that This Is My Jam intends to help you answer. And, help you share that answer with other music lovers.
“Not any old track, but THAT song; the one that’s on repeat, the one you can’t get out of your head today, the one worth shouting about.”
This Is My Jam encourages discovery of new music with no search box—except the one you use to choose your “jam.” The homepage contains your playlist and tracks are sourced by the friends you follow. Instead of listening to the same old tunes you want to listen to, TIMJ makes you explore more music by suggesting people to follow based on these criteria: Most-liked jams this month, Popular current jam, Most-liked among friends, and Past jams include [x] (x = artist you’ve made your ‘jam’ before ). These suggestions make for stripped down, yet rich, listening experiences based on the tastes of the community of listeners.
It would be nice if they rolled out a tagging system which limits the choice to certain genres, but intentions of the Past jams include [x] suggestion is to take your brain (via your ears) for a walk from your familiar neighbourhood into the wild world recommended by other audiophiles. In three days of following and building my profile, I now have solid suggestions that are right in line with my taste and the next best thing to shouting at a DJ in the pub to ask what the last song they played was.
All-in, This Is My Jam is a sleek way to explore new tracks. This streaming music service and its suggestions will get better as it develops, but with all of the services out now, available outside of America at least, it’s harder than ever to stand out. However, TMIJ integrates the #thisismyjam hashtag and the “Discover” feature of the new Twitter as a way better way than searching for the tag #music:
If you’d like to join the Beta community all you need to do is follow Stikky Media on Twitter and we’ll follow you back so you can get an invite. If you are following a friend who is already on the service you can join that way as well. We also have 5 link invites to send out, leave a comment if you are interested. Facebook integration is coming soon.
P.S. Shirtify.fm is pretty cool too.
Related Articles:
Showdown: Spotify vs. Rdio vs. Grooveshark vs. Pandora: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/07/14/showdown-spotify-vs-rdio-vs-grooveshark-vs-pandora/
Rdio vs. Spotify vs. MOG vs. Rhapsody: Streaming Music Subscriptions on Android:Â http://www.tested.com/news/rdio-vs-spotify-vs-mog-vs-rhapsody-streaming-music-subscriptions-on-android/3262/
Can Rdio Withstand The Spotify Assault? A Feature-By-Feature Look: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/14/spotify-vs-rdio/
Rdio vs Spotify: My One Month Review Of Subscription Music: http://nerdology.tumblr.com/post/9585419932
