Songza has come a long way from its roots as a music search-engine competing with Seeqpod. The company’s last pivot in 2012 turned out to be a hugely successful one, turning it into an iOS app offering streaming, themed playlists to match users’ current moods, activities and context.
Stats released yesterday show how it’s doing: the app has been installed 6m times by iOS users, while Songza itself has nearly 4.7m monthly active users streaming more than 1m hours of music a day.
Now Songza has released version 3.0 of its iOS app which CEO Elias Roman claims is “prettier, more powerful and it’s easier to use”. New features include better audio quality through a partnership with Audyssey; the ability to start playlists more quickly through long-taps and shaking the device; in-app tips to help users get more out of Songza; and a simplified navigation that “removes visual clutter”.
The app looks good, although it remains restricted to the US and Canada. Songza’s decision to invest in the design of its app is sensible though, because relying on the contextual ‘Concierge’ feature would be risky.
Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio has already launched its own similar ‘Perfect for.’ feature, Senzari’s Wahwah rebranding included contextual features too, and it’s not a huge leap for any of the on-demand streaming services to add similar functionality. Songza has been growing well in the last 10 months, but it can’t rest on its laurels.
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