From songs for your rocking house party to a soundtrack for your post-breakup emo session, Songza's concierge-style playlist recommendation service finds music to suit your needs. The service, recently acquired by Google for $39 million, delivers playlists that are curated by people from professional musicians and DJs to average Joes, so you get a great mix of familiar hits and indie finds. Here's how to get the most out of Songza.
Note: The screenshots in this guide were taken from an iPhone, but the steps apply to Android devices as well.
1. Download and install Songza from the App Store.
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2. Open the app.
3. Pick a mood.
4. Choose a category of music.
5. Select a playlist that appeals the most to you. You can get a better idea of what each playlist will sound like by reading the description under its name.
Sometimes, a 15 to 30-second video ad will pop up after this step if you're not a Club Songza member. A $3.99 subscription to Songza's premium service removes ads.
6. Press forward to skip songs you don't like.
You're allowed to skip up to five songs within a set time frame (it's not immediately clear how long this is, but you can usually skip again after an hour). Club Songza members get twice the number of skips.
7. Like a song by tapping the thumbs up icon on the album cover. This saves the song to your favorite songs list.
8. Share what song you're listening to on Facebook or Twitter by tapping the relevant icon on the song's cover image.
9. Tap the I icon on the top right to pull up more options.
10. Press the Star icon to save the entire playlist as a favorite.
11. Go back to the home page and tap the menu button in the top left of your screen.
12. Hit the Favorites tab at the bottom left. Your starred or liked playlists and songs are saved here so you can pull them up easily.
From this menu, you can also choose from Songza's wide-ranging library of playlists, organized by activity, mood, genre or decade. You can also look up playlists you've tried recently.
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