(Platform: iOS), I just like to start off by saying, I love this app. It’s probably my most used app on my iPhone. I’ll use it at home with my headphones & speakers, and even at work to either please or drive my peers crazy. What is it exactly? It’s a music player similar to the one that comes with any iPhone, and iPad device. But what makes this one special? It’s all the features that are within the app.
The main feature that makes this app so awesome, which is stated on the Groove website is the ability to “study your listening habits, and create a wide variety of instant mixes like you own personal DJ”. How awesome does that sound? Pretty sweet, if you ask me.
Anyway, this app is powered in conjuction with LAST FM. What is that exactly? Anyone who listens to music, and uses the LAST FM application has the ability to send their music listening habits to the LAST FM website. It’s all recorded on their website, and with 30 million users it’s able to give you recommendations for similar artists/bands that you like to listen to. In the case of the application Groove, it gives you suggestions of your own music library.
Just by playing one song, and using the groove button, you can set up a playlist for you to listen to. Here’s an example of a suggested playlist using Groove:
Example… the song “Whirring” by the Joy Formidable:
This is the exact playlist that was created by using Groove:
01. The Joy Formidable – Whirring
02. The Ravonettes – Black/White
03. Land Of Talk – Give Me Back My Heart Attack
04. Phantogram – As Far As I Can See
05. Metric – Gold Gun Girls
06. The Ravonettes – She Owns The Streets
07. The Kills – U R A Fever
08. Best Coast – When I’m With You
09. The Big Pink – Stay Gold
10. Land Of Talk – Goaltime Exposure
11. Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass
12. Land Of Talk – Yuppy Flu
13. The Kills – Future Starts Slow
14. Ladyhawke – Black, White & Blue
15. Bloc Party – We Are Not Good People
16. Passion Pit – I’ll Be Alright
17. Metric – Glass Ceiling
18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Turn Into
19. Sleigh Bells – Kids
20. Band Of Skulls – Lay My Head Down
21. The Joy Formidable – Austere
22. Wintersleep – New Inheritors
23. Stars – Fixed
24. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Rich
25. Dum Dum Girls – Bedroom Eyes
26. Metric – Poster Of A Girl
27. Bloc Party – Signs
28. Be Your Own Pet – Thresher’s Flail
29. Be Your Own Pet – Fuuuuuun
30. The Joy Formidable – Cradle
So yeah, that’s an example of a playlist using 30 songs. You can make playlists with as many songs as you like within 5 increments up to 35 songs. And unlike the Genius player on your iTunes, iPod, or iPad, it does a much better job at creating these playlists. Just look the artists following The Joy Formidable… they’re mostly female singer groups, it’s in the genre of loud/hard, indie rock, And there’s quite the variety of artists/bands & random songs by artists, and not just pulling up popular tracks (which gives you the opportunity to dig deep into the artist’s library).
Another option for generating playlists, is by searching by genres, or as Groove likes to say, by searching by tags (like “indie, “female vocalists”, “british”). And “three of a kind” which lets you plays 3 songs by one artist, and goes on to the next artist with 3 songs, and so on.
And also by keeping track of your listening habits, it’s able to make a list of top artists, and top albums of music you listen to. Which is awesome for keeping track of bands you don’t listen to, and can delete at a later time.
Not listening to that old AC/DC collection? See yah!
Oh, just a final thought. For all of you people, like me, who use iTunes, and are not digging iTunes 11. Well… they are currently developing a Groove music player for Windows 8. I don’t have Windows 8. But that will probably give me a reason to update. For all of you Apple users, sorry no word on that one.
