| URL | songza.com |
|---|---|
| Slogan | Social Radio. |
| Type of site | Free Internet Radio |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Amie Street |
| Created by | Aza Raskin, Scott Robbin |
| Launched | November 8, 2007 |
| Current status | Active |
Songza is a web radio that streams music for free. Songza is different from other web radio services for two reasons: the stations on Songza are made by people (any member of the community can create a station) and Songza helps people find stations by personalizing the Songza experience based on a user's interests (simple survey questions, like Netflix) and by displaying an activity feed of what their friends are listening to (using Facebook connect). Songza's mission is "to help you find the radio station that perfectly fits your mood or whatever you're doing right now; in other words, to help you find your soundtrack".[1] Songza is headquartered in Long Island City, New York.
Unlike other streaming services, users can find stations not just based on artists, songs, and genres, but also based on themes, interests, and eras, like "Songs In Apple Commercials", "90s One-Hit Wonders", and "Music of Fashion Week".[1]
Songza has been widely noted for its unique user interface, which incorporates many ideas that Aza Raskin had previously written about and which are generally uncommon.[2]
Amie Street acquired the company in October 2008.[3] However, in late January 2010 Songza had to put their music streaming service on hold due to problems with YouTube's API, which is what the site used to play back songs at the time. YouTube was presumably blocking the site from using its API because YouTube could be sued for supporting a free music service without advertisements.[citation needed] In March 2010, the music streaming service was relaunched as songza.org and songza.fm before going back to songza.com.
Originally only searching YouTube for music, in August 2010 Songza launched a new version of the service to focus on bringing social networking to music. According to Mashable "the upcoming set of features sounds like Pandora plus every social networking trend we’ve seen over the past year or two".[4] The site now hosts the music themselves.
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