App Review - Songza
Ever had a hard time trying to find what music to listen to? Songza gives you an expert-curated playlist based on the time of the day so that you never search for what to listen to.
First Impressions
It starts even before downloading the app. Let’s do this in the form of questions.
1. How did Songza come to my attention?
On my iPhone 4 (way old now), I was struggling with music experience and finding it hard to install heavy apps like Spotify. I hadn’t heard about this app ever. On talking to one of my friends about my experience, he suggested giving a try to Songza because of its amazing feel and look. I usually listen to my friends.
2. What was it supposed to do when I first read the description?
It said “Songza curates playlists according to your activity, mood and time of the day”. That led me to think that like many other apps out there, it tracks my interests and activity to suggest the songs I’d like. Glancing over the iOS ratings, it looked promising.
THE EXPERIENCE
The meat of what went into making this app real comes at this stage. How does this app feel to use?
No sign up required. Isn’t that wishful thinking for a user in this age?
With a clean interface, the app directly takes me to the landing page, called ‘Concierge’ where it asks me what I want to hear. Goal first.
Devoid of all the unnecessary ads and buttons, this screen displays what matters the most at the time of choosing and listening a particular song. All the less important actions hide under the icon on the top-right. So-smooth.
Segregation within sidebar made it very easy to group different probably options. Capitalized font used makes it easier to understand that it’s a heading. Do-the-work-for-me.
Choosing the playlist or the song based on what I am doing. Ask the right questions and displaying them in an intuitive list. Neat!
Unified search meaning that the app has handled the situation of user forgetting his path or not able to find what he wants, perfectly. Avoid mistakes.
Being able to change the songs from notifications is all about handing the power to the user. Make the user feel confident of his actions.
AFTER THOUGHTS
I ended up using Songza so much since the time I discovered it that it has almost become a habit. The moment I step into the gym, I end up opening it and choosing “Top Pop Hits” playlist.
1. How often did I use this app?
To give you an idea, here’s my data usage for this month:
Look at that chart! I guess that’s what habit forming products are all about.
2. Comparing to similar apps like Spotify and Pandora, why Songza?
- It doesn’t require any sign up. So no promotional crap and follow up emails. Just listen to the songs and that’s all. Yeah, it’s that simple. Unlike other services which run after your data. Ugh.
- Those apps are way too heavy. Remember that I started with an iPhone 4 with a need for a light app. And since that day, it’s been more than an year and this app hasn’t crashed on me once. How cool is that?
- Songza is all about context-based music instead of activity based recommendation. We’ve all seen Pandora going down in the days. Bah.
3. How does Songza make money if it’s not for personalized Ads?
In the form of native ads. For example: An ad from Taco Bell could take the form of a playlist titled “Getting Hyped with Taco Bell”during lunch time.
4. Room for improvement? What does this app not have?
For me as a user, it does a fine job of delivering what I want. But here is what I’d include:
- Intelligent Skipping — When I skip a song in a playlist, it shouldn’t come up in any other playlist if I switch on the same day or time. Skipping means I don’t want to listen to it today!
- Adaptive Playlists — Of course, I can create my own playlist. But there are some playlists which I never listen to. They should go away.
Side note: Both the above improvements would require to create an account which I do not want. So, I guess this is a feasible trade-off!
5. Can I redesign this experience? What would I change?
A design that works tells a story which rhymes with multiple users. You’ve just seen my perspective on this. I’d test this out to find out how other users use this app and take that as a starting point to reimagine this experience.
THE PRESENT
And this happened:
And they brought Songza like features (which is contextual and expert-curated playlists) to Google Play Music.
Well that had to happen! It looks like this:
A successful product is a one that understands what people want.
Songza for me is a delightful experience which I still use on a daily basis without getting frustrated. I hope Google doesn’t kill it.
