The music search engine SeeqPod has just announced a new service for music fans: "PodLists." Because of the massive amount of playable search results available on the SeeqPod service - 12 million at the moment and ever-growing - it can be difficult to find music that you like. Sites like Last.fm rely on social recommendations to help you find new artists, but SeeqPod's take is a bit different. Instead of launching social features, they'll be posting fresh, customized playlists to the site's homepage on a daily basis. ]]>
Each PodList will have an identifying theme - for example, today's include the "SeeqPod Top 20," "Old School Rap," and "Funk For Ya Trunk." The idea is that instead of having social recommendations in place, you can be exposed to more kinds of music by playing a daily playlist that highlights some of the tracks that can be found on SeeqPod. In a way, this also turns SeeqPod into an online radio station of sorts - one where they don't bombard you with the same tunes over and over again, but one where the station changes identities every day.
For fans of Muxtape, the new PodLists feature may hold some appeal - the only difference is that instead of searching through various online mixtapes identified only by username (you should at least be using Muxfind for that!), you'll have daily access to a fresh set of what are, essentially, online mixes identified by theme or genre instead.
As you listen to the PodLists, you can use SeeqPod's built-in features to remove the tracks you don't like and save the rest to a playlist of your own.
At the moment, the PodLists aren't customized to a particular user's tastes, but the SeeqPod team does look at the most popular search queries by topic or artist, and, based on the data found, they then create a list that suits that particular demographic. However, sometime this summer individual users will be able to search for lists by username, list name, or date - which will make the service more Muxtape-like, considering that users could then create playlists that others could discover.
For anyone in search of more ways to discover new music, this service is worth a look...as long as they keep their recommendations fresh.
For more information on SeeqPod, you may be interested in checking out our recent Alt Search Engines podcast which featured LaurieAnne (LA) Lassek of Seeqpod and Aza Raskin of Songaza (who partnered with SeeqPod this year to offer more music).
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