“It’s an amazing marriage of algorithms on one hand and expert human curation on the other.” “ Should it be algorithms or should it be people is the wrong question,” agreed Roman. Google Play Music’s equivalent to Spotify’s ‘Release Radar’ and Apple Music’s ‘My New Music Mix’ in other words.Īll of these services are trying to match listeners’ tastes (and, increasingly, contexts) with playlists created by their in-house teams: a trend that in an ideal world would deliver a final nail in the coffin for ‘humans or algorithms?’ arguments. There’s also a card called ‘Recommended New Releases’ offering a selection of new tracks that Google Play thinks the listener will be interested in, presented as a station. “The first recommendation is Eminem radio, then there’s an album from D12, a curated station called Rep Your Roots…” And further down the page there’s a card that says ‘For Fans of Eminem’,” continued Roman. “I’ve been having a weird late-90s nostalgia moment recently, listening to a lot of Eminem. Roman talked Music Ally through the cards served up to him by the app, with the top suggestion being a curated station called Head-Nodding Beats which he’s listened to at work recently, followed by a card recommending energy-boosting tracks. Each card has a big piece of artwork and a single call to action: a play button. Google Now’s influence is clear in the revamped user interface for Google Play Music: big, bold ‘cards’ rather than carousels or clusters. Is this when you usually run, bike or drive? Are you at home, work, the library or in the park? Are you in an airport needing some music to de-stress travellers?”
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“So we’ve overhauled Google Play Music and brought in the full range of Google’s capabilities, including machine learning and contextual understanding. But because we’re not in a broadcast medium, it should be tailored to you with the content you like and the context you’re in,” said Roman. “ The Google take on music products should be as easy as radio: one button and you press it and it works. What Google Play Music is doing now is the next step on: not needing to be told. Its users had to tell it what they were doing, however. Songza was one of the first music-streaming companies to focus on context-based recommendations with its playlists for barbecues, workouts, concentration and so on. It’s part of a wider trend that includes Spotify’s ‘Just For You’ carousel, Apple Music’s ‘For You’ screen and Deezer’s ‘Flow’ feature.Īhead of the launch, Music Ally spoke to Google Play Music product manager Elias Roman, who joined the company when it acquired his startup Songza in July 2014. Importantly, this will be delivered through Google Play Music’s home screen rather than buried elsewhere within its app. “When you opt in, workout music is front and center as you walk into the gym, a sunset soundtrack appears just as the sky goes pink, and tunes for focusing turn up at the library,” is how Google Play is describing the experience, in a blog post.
Google Play Music will now combine its understanding of people’s listening preferences with signals including location, activity and even the weather to serve up recommendations.
You can think of this as its Google Now moment: recommending music in the same way that the Google Now tool on smartphones serves up weather reports, travel information and other data when they might be most useful.
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The redesign is rolling out this week for Google Play Music’s Android and iOS apps, in the 62 countries where the service is available. The Google Play Music streaming service is getting a redesign, putting more of an emphasis on personalised playlists and music recommendations based on where the listener is and what they’re doing. Tags: Elias Roman Google Google Play machine learning Playlists