Songzawas a freemusic streamingandrecommendationservice for Internet users in the United States and Canada.
 | |
Type of site | Freeinternet radio |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | Long Island City,Queens,New York City,New York,United States |
| Owner | Alphabet Inc. |
| Created by | Aza Raskinand Scott Robbin |
| URL | songza.comat theWayback Machine(archived 2014-07-01) |
| Launched | November 8, 2007 |
| Current status | Discontinued (Merged intoGoogle Play Musicand subsequently intoYouTube Music) |
Stating that its playlists are made by music experts, the service would recommend its users on various playlists based on time of day and mood or activity.[1][2]Songza offered playlists for activities such as waking up, working out, commuting, concentrating, unwinding, entertaining, and sleeping.[3]Users would vote songs up or down, and the service will adapt to the user's personal music preferences.[3]Users would find playlists not just based on artists, songs, or genres, but also based on themes, interests, and eras, such as "90s One-Hit Wonders",or" Music ofFashion Week".[4]
Songza was headquartered in theLong Island Cityneighborhood of theQueensboroughofNew York City,New York.[5]
Songza was purchased by Google on July 1, 2014, and on December 2, 2015, Google announced Songza would merge intoGoogle Play Musicon January 31, 2016.[6]As of September 24, 2021, the main site is offline, displaying a redirect toYouTube Music.
History
editAmie Streetacquired Songza, a product created byAza Raskinand Scott Robbin, in October 2008.[7]In August 2010, Amie Street was sold to Amazon for an undisclosed amount.[8]Shortly after this the co-founders – CEO Elias Roman, COO Peter Asbill, CPO Elliott Breece and CCO Eric Davich – refocused their efforts on Songza.[1]The team discontinued the original version and relaunched a newalpha versionof Songza, keeping nothing of the original product but the name.[9]
Over the next year the founders experimented with various iterations. When the app originally launched in 2010, it was described byPandoDailyas "like a pre-Turntable.fm.A function called Social Radio allowed users to be DJs for their friends. "[2]This version of the app allowed it to be social and crowdsourced; the problem with it was that the service as it stood was not sufficiently differentiated from other services on the market and the quality of the crowd sourced playlists was low.[2]Following a year of testing various iterations of the alpha version of the app, Songza relaunched inbetaoniPhoneandAndroidapps on September 13, 2011, armed with a team of 25 expert music curators.[1][2][10][11]
In March 2012, Songza released its Music Concierge feature, on iPhone and the web.[1][12]The concierge presented users with up to six situations based on time of day, with filters for whatever mood they might be in. For example, on a Wednesday morning a user may have been presented with situations for "Waking Up", "Singing in the Shower", "Working Out" and so on. This feature was rolled out to iPad on June 7, 2012; during the first ten days following the iPad app launch, Songza saw over 1.15 million downloads.[13]
On June 12, 2012, Songza was listed as the top free app on iTunes for the iPad and the number two free app for the iPhone.[14]Concierge was released on Android on July 10, 2012, and for Android tablets on August 14, 2012.[15][16]The app expanded to Canada on August 7, 2012, and became the number-one overall free app in Canada on August 13, 2012.[2][17]Within the week of Microsoft's Build developer event in June 2013, Songza snuck in its officialWindows 8app.[18]
Songza launched in Canada on August 7, 2012, and reached the one million download mark after 70 days.[19][20]
Starting October 2013, Songza began inserting pop-up audio/video ads when initiating a playlist, making it no longer "audio-ad free". Songza reported having 5.5 million regular users at the end of 2013.[21]
Songza was acquired by Google on July 1, 2014.[22][23]No terms were disclosed but speculation put the price at somewhere between $15 million and $39 million.[24]Both companies issued statements saying they were "thrilled" to be doing the deal.[25]In October 2014, following the acquisition, theGoogle Play Music All Accessservice was updated to include functionality adapted from Songza's Concierge system.[26]
Songza was merged intoGoogle Play Musicon January 31, 2016, which itself was shut down on December 1, 2020. As of September 24, 2021, the Songza website is offline, and its formerURLdisplays a redirect to YouTube Music, Google's current music streaming service.
References
edit
- ^abcdSisaro, Ben (June 20, 2012)."Pandora Faces Rivals for Ears and Ads".The New York Times.RetrievedJune 20,2012.
- ^abcdeGriffith, Erin."Songza's Founders Realized They Weren't Thinking Radically Enough – Here's How They Changed That".PandoDaily.Archived fromthe originalon August 17, 2012.RetrievedAugust 15,2012.
- ^abTsukayama, Hayley (June 25, 2012)."TechBits: Songza adapts the music to your mood".The Washington Post.RetrievedJune 23,2012.
- ^"About Us".Songza.RetrievedMarch 25,2011.
- ^Trapasso, Clare."Songza music service streams for success".Daily News.Archived fromthe originalon January 30, 2013.RetrievedJuly 27,2012.
- ^McIntyre, Hugh."Streaming Platform Songza Is Finally Closing".Forbes.RetrievedNovember 8,2017.
- ^Nicole, Kristen."Interview with Amie Street: Why Keep Acquisition of Songza a Secret?".bub.blicio.us.RetrievedMarch 25,2011.
- ^Arrington, Michael."Amazon Acquires Amie Street, But Not in a Good Way".TechCrunch.RetrievedSeptember 8,2010.
- ^del Castillo, Michael."Downtime: The birth of Songza".Upstart Business Journal.RetrievedJune 15,2012.
- ^Empson, Rip."Songza Raises Seven Figure Round; Launches Mobile, Sharable Music Collections in the Cloud".TechCrunch.RetrievedSeptember 13,2011.
- ^"Songza launches iPhone and Android apps to digitize the mix tape"ArchivedJune 13, 2012, at theWayback Machine.
- ^Crook, Jordan (June 7, 2012)."Songza, the Music Streaming Service That Does All Work for You, Launches an iPad App".TechCrunch.com.RetrievedJune 7,2012.
- ^Mlot, Stephanie."Songza Hits 1.15 Million iOS Downloads in 10 Days".PC Magazine.RetrievedJune 18,2012.
- ^Peoples, Glenn."Songza Reaches One Million iOs Downloads in Ten Days, But Is It the Next Big Thing?".Billboard.biz.Archived fromthe originalon January 15, 2013.RetrievedJune 19,2012.
- ^Kameka, Andrew."Songza re-ups with expert Music Concierge playlists, lockscreen controls, and new Holo-like design".Androinica.com. Archived fromthe originalon July 13, 2012.RetrievedJuly 10,2012.
- ^Mlot, Stephanie."Songza App Now Available on Android Tablets".PC Magazine.RetrievedAugust 14,2012.
- ^Ram, Anand."Songza's Elias Roman wants to provide the music for every mood".o.canada.com. Archived fromthe originalon July 15, 2013.RetrievedAugust 7,2012.
- ^[1].WP Central. June 27, 2013.
- ^Dobby, Christine (August 23, 2012)."Songza startup singing a Canadian tune".Financial Post.August 23, 2012.
- ^Crook, Jordan (October 18, 2012)."Songza's Canada Launch Nabs 1 Million New Users in 70 Days".TechCrunch.
- ^Sisario, Ben (July 1, 2014)."Google in Deal for Songza, a Music Playlist Service".New York Times.
- ^Chowdhry, Amit."Google Has Acquired Music Streaming Startup Songza".Forbes.RetrievedNovember 8,2017.
- ^"Google Buys Songza".TechCrunch.RetrievedJuly 1,2014.
- ^Chowdhry, Amit."Google Has Acquired Music Streaming Startup Songza".Forbes.RetrievedSeptember 16,2020.
- ^"Google acquires music app start-up Songza".Business Sun. Archived fromthe originalon July 14, 2014.RetrievedJuly 3,2014.
- ^"Google brings Songza's best feature to Play Music".The Verge.October 21, 2014.RetrievedOctober 21,2014.
