Smartphone owners have a lot of options for streaming music today, and if a brand new challenger doesn’t get off to a great start, it will easily get left within the dust. How is Nokia planning to take care of with the likes of Spotify and Pandora on its upcoming Windows Phone ? By conscripting Echo Nest, the oldsters behind iHeartRadio and Spotify’s own song-finding features , to tug the playlist picking strings behind Nokia Music’s Mix Radio. Using a light-weight browser app, Mix Radio assesses your appetite for beats with a “taste profile” derived out of your music library, and uses the information to generate personalized radio stations. The outfit is looking 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.
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 foremost personalized global music service the arena 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 at 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 arena’s growing number ofsmartphone users a wonderful new option.
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