US-based satellite radio service SiriusXM is today officially launching a new feature built on The Echo Nest called MySXM.
Though it has been available for the Web version of the app for a few months already, it finally hit Android and iOS in the past few weeks too.
Just to recap, The Echo Nest’s main offering is based on its database of tens of millions of songs and artists, which is automatically derived using Web crawling, data mining and digital signal processing. The platform enables third-party developers and media companies to integrate music data across their products.
With 24 million subscribers, SiriusXM creates and broadcasts ad-free music, sports talk, comedy, news and more, and is available in vehicles from most of the major car companies in the US, as well as mobile apps for Android, iOS and BlackBerry.
SiriusXM Radio claims to have “more paying subscribers than any other music service,” and with MySXM now in tow, it brings The Echo Nest’s data-driven music discovery into the mix, alongside its human curation.
In the mix with MySXM
When users first start listening to a MySXM channel, they hear programming similar to what’s available through the main SiriusXM conduit. But with MySXM, any listener can personalize what they hear.
Indeed, MySXM means users can tailor their music channels with nifty little sliders, opting between hearing less or more new music, or perhaps ‘no jazz but plenty of rock’. It’s a little like Spotify’s radio feature, which lets you indicate the music you like so it serves up more of the same in future. But with MySXM, you tell it in advance what you do and don’t like.
Channel-specific sliders allow users to create more than one hundred variations of 50 SiriusXM channels, tweaking characteristics such as library depth, familiarity, music style, tempo, region, and others. SiriusXM will add more channels to its MySXM line-up in due course.
“The collaboration between SiriusXM and The Echo Nest has been one of the most interesting, innovative and eye-opening partnerships we’ve entered into,” said The Echo Nest in a statement. “After working with SiriusXM’s music programming and digital product team for over a year, we’re confident this approach will re-shape how music services think about personalized radio.”
A neat new addition for sure, and one that should help SiriusXM cement its position in the increasingly competitive music-streaming space.
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