SeeqPod Music and Recommendation Search Engine
The team behind SeeqPod, a music search and recommendation engine, believes strongly in what they call "playable search." SeeqPod trawls the web, indexing all the music files it finds, and then offers them for playback direct from that location. The company knows that because they are not hosting any music files, but are merely offering links to them, they can neatly sidestep copyright and legal concerns.
The homepage is reminiscent of Google's original unadorned page with just a simple search form. The vital difference,is that SeeqPod also displays a sample of current music being indexed by its engine. These songs are meant to draw you in, and succeed at it. There's something mesmerising about watching track after track scroll by.
The SeeqPod homepage.
Searching
Quick searches for my favorite artists consistently brought up dozens of tracks. When more obscure artists aren't found, SeeqPod promises to look for them. All search results can be added to a playlist, either audio or video. Playlists can be named, shared and saved, although the latter requires an account.
The site offers numerous options for interacting with a track including the ability to share, embed or delete them. There are also options to find out more about the track like its lyrics, blogs that it appears on, and MySpace and Wikipedia entries. Some tracks give users the option to buy them on Amazon, check tour dates or even download it as a ring tone.
Hands down the best feature, though, is "discover." SeeqPod uses their own patented algorithms that "analyze and mimic the way people make associations, using a biomimetic approach revealing direct, indirect & hidden connections between different objects." In practice, that means that SeeqPod can tell me that Pearl Jam is associated with both Temple of the Dog and Mother Love Bone - which is pretty good given the intertwined history of those bands. Using the discover feature can help lead you to new music that relationships SeeqPod has figured out suggest you will enjoy.
Each track has numerous options.
Potential
SeeqPod has a lot of potential. It is fun, interesting and useful, and I already find myself using it daily. The whole site is built in Flash, which makes song interaction and playing very smooth and easy. There are some simple implementation issues such as tracks that cut out - which is incredibly frustrating, but may be due to the source files rather than SeeqPod itself. The biggest downfall for me is the lack of recommendation on the fly. You need to find your own tracks and queue them, there is no radio option a la Pandora.
I may have been spoiled (or possibly corrupted) by all the social networking sites out there, but I'd love to be able to find other users. I can share my playlists specifically with friends and SeeqPod offers a number of ways to do that, but I'd love to just be able to check out what other cool music my friends have found without them having to initiate it, or be able to find friends based on common musical interests.
Open for play
SeeqPod also has an API which offers access to its search results and, more importantly, to its recommendations capabilities. So far documentation is limited, but coding for it looks straightforward.
The site also has a bunch of experimental products under development, such as an iPhone app. Being an Aussie, I have no access to that particular device, but I'd love to hear what iPhone users think of it!
SeeqPod is a very exciting product. The combination of massive search index and immediately playable files is a big winner with everybody I've talked to. "Playable search" may be the future, but even if SeeqPod is wrong, they have a very cool useful site that's great to use right now.
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Unbelievable great site! Thanks for this review. Let's see how long it will exist until record companies will force them to close down.
Thanks for taking the time to check out SeeqPod, Lachlan.
Nice piece.
-LaurieAnne, SeeqPod
I absolutely LOVE Seeqpod.
I think it's a brilliant web app, it's the best thing I've come across online for ages.
there are a couple of things they could do to improve the usability, but overall, it's a fantastic distraction.
As you say Lachlan, it would really benefit from some social networking I think...
Doesn't seem to work here, says I don't have Flash installed;
Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Intel)
Firefox 2.0.0.5
Flash Player Version 9,0,28,0
good review of seeqpod. I have posted a comment on this at http://www.gerdleonhard.net/2007/07/music-syndicati.html here is an excerpt:
...this is essentially meta-distribution of MP3 files that have been embedded in 10s of 1000s of MP3 blogs around the world, i.e. it's feeding of their blog posts, their servers, their gray-zone legal status (and I say this with great appreciation - I love what they are doing!).
Currently, however, most of these MP3 blogs are kinda ignored by the actual rightsholders or shall I say the major record labels (since most of the indies do seem to like the mp3 blogs a lot), but THIS kind of super-distribution of those 'tolerated' MP3s will rattle their cages fairly quickly. Because, let's face it, this is essentially on-demand, interactive play of single tracks which they have always maintained is subject to a license fee.
I mean, yes, of course that idea is an illusion, too, but still: look at the recent Imeem - WMG lawsuit etc etc - and this is also, of course, the very reason why Sonific does not yet have a lot of current hit artists on Sonific.com. We just don't feel like giving up a big chunk of our company, and some nice chunk of VC-provided cash (which we don't have, anyway) for the merely theoretical grant of rights to include some of their catalog that is licensed based on a commercial deal that looks just about as bad as selling weekend trips to the moon (*no implied meaning that Imeem did suffer that fate - just talking about ourselves, here...)
But anyway, what do you think will happen if these guys (projectPL and Seeqpod et al) gain a real audience (meaning... millions of users and embeds in most social networks)?. Well, it's simple: the MP3 blogs that feed them - willingly or not - will get take-down orders; or rather, the top 3 blog services (blogger/ google, typepad / livejournal / vox / six apart, wordpress) that host most of them, will get take down orders for ALL MP3s that are hosted on their millions of blogs, and that will be the end of us enjoying things like fluxblog or hypemachine. I am not so sure these MP3 blogs should be, or are, so happy about stuff like Project Playlist or SeeqPod.....
amazing idea! I've tried it and it really made me so excited. thanks!