We’re proud that Moodagent is among the first and few selected apps that adds a new layer of music exploration to Spotify’s great music streaming service. During the beta-period in the last couple of weeks, the response to Moodagent in Spotify has been overwhelming. Twitter has been flowing with outbursts of enthusiasm, and we’d like to share a number of these tweets with you:
Moodagent for Spotify is the best thing that has happened to music since, well… Spotify!
Kenneth Arntsen
Moodagent works wonders! This is music heaven.
Tomb Svalborg
Moodagent makes Spotify the ultimate music discovery service.
Socialtvx
The Moodagent app on the new Spotify beta is absolutely incredible. Seriously… Wow!
Dan Herd
The Moodagent app on Spotify is, no hyperbole, life changing.
Dieter Kurtenbach
The moodagent app in the new Spotify is the coolest thing EVER! Making playlists of songs I didn’t even know I would love!
Marcy Jo
Holy crap this is a game changer. Awesome. Moodagent is WAY cool.
Eddie Y
OMG! Moodagent is exactly what I’ve been looking for in Spotify!
Luca Spiller
I do declare that the Moodagent app for Spotify is the best way of discovering new music I have ever seen. Ever.
Niall Kelly
It’s cool, Moodagent. You already helped me find a new band I’m loving.
Mark Cambonez
Moodagent where have you been my entire Spotify career?
Mark Malta
Okay, the Moodagent app for Spotify is brilliant! I’ve not had a “wow” moment with a piece of software in ages!
David Shutter
Thanks to all you great tweeters who shared your experiences with Moodagent. Keep ‘em coming! We hope that you too are ready to surf the masses of music in Spotify through Moodagent. Just add Moodagent from the App Finder, select a Quick Mood or search for a starting track and Moodagent creates a list of matching tunes. Now let’s go soundtrack your mood.
It’s official. Moodagent for Spotify is here. As just announced by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek at a press conference in NYC, the next generation of Spotify has a full integration of specially selected apps -and Moodagent is right at the core. Apply the Moodagent magic to the millions of tracks in Spotify and get ready to soundtrack your mood.
Check out Moodagent for Spotify by downloading the preview version here.
Or read more about the great new world of music exploration that comes when you add Moodagent to Spotify.
This is for the most part a task that we’re able to do, but sometimes you find artists that have such a varied output that they’re unclassifiable. These artists are to me a great challenge in my daily work, but they are also a great reminder that music is not a static thing and the walls between genres are full of holes where inspiration can flow.
Take the example of Beck – how would you categorize him? He is indie, but also mainstream. He is a singer/songwriter, but also disco/dance artist and much, much more. Even if you look at some of his recordings, the tracklist is an eclectic collection of many different styles and inspirations.
Beck: Already Dead
Beck: Mixed Bizness
Another example could be Tom Waits. He has a unique sound and sounds (more or less) the same on his albums, but what does he sound like? Is it Rock? Jazz? Folk? Blues? It’s extremely hard to describe, but one thing is for sure: He sounds exactly like Tom Waits!
Tom Waits: Satisfied
There are tons of others like these two and to me they pose one of the most interesting challenges in our quest to help our users navigate all music in the world!
The Moodagent music blog
by Andreas
In these years of fast forward expanding music technology, it’s interesting for us at Moodagent to follow the retro waves within the tech world of music. The love for vinyl, old analog equipment, 8-bit synthesizer and tape coexist with the vast opportunities of the digital music realm. An exciting example on the cassette revival is the adorable music blog project Awesome Tapes From Africa.
American ethnomusicologist Brian Shimkovitz has built quite a fascinating domain on African cassettes. After having traveled and studied in Ghana in 2005, he has collected an immense amount of cassettes from all over Africa. These he has digitalized and archived on his blog for all to listen to. Noting artist details, genre, area and personal remarks on the music, Shimkovitz has single-handed mapped out a huge variety of forgotten African gems.
Shimkovitz has a profound love for the quirky sound of the old cassettes and holds no less than 4000 cassettes in his Brooklyn apartment. Ever since the modest magnitude of the blog in 2006, it has grown rapidly in size and hits. Awesome Tapes From Africa has in its own right given way for a bigger interest in African music over the last couple of years. And now Shimkovitz is spreading the knowledge even further by DJ’ing with his cassettes, attending festivals like All Tomorrow’s Parties, Pitchfork Festival and our own Danish festival Roskilde Festival.
Just recently Shimkovitz announced that he is creating a label to be able to put out some of the cassettes as actual albums. Another interesting thing about this mentality is the return to the album rather than detached songs on playlists. Here quoted from an interview with The Village Voice:
”I feel like there are millions great compilations coming out, but I’m going to really take a closer look at the artist rather than a disembodied track with a break beat to it. My thing is that I’m going to put out complete records, basically doing what the blog is doing, but in a commercial release format”.
At Moodagent we aim at embracing both mindsets when it comes to experiencing music; both the ever modulated focus on the track, but also the more old school contemplating enjoyment of the whole album. Awesome Tapes From Africa gives exciting outlooks on the how the olden days of cassette tapes can meet up with the modern digitalized world of music.
The Moodagent Music Blog
by Kasper @ Moodagent
15 years ago the German artist and producer Carsten Nicolai founded the label Raster Noton, together with companions Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider. Since then this label has sported an impressive roster of delicate electronic artists from all over the world.
Raster Noton has managed to establish its very own style and aesthetics – some would call it microsound or clicks n’ cuts, I would propose ‘beyond minimal’ as another tag. In a world of electronic music where it can be difficult to see any true evolution and really hear unprecedented sounds (a lot of new electronic styles such as Wonky, Chillwave and UK Funky, are all to some extend looking backwards towards earlier genres) the Raster Noton artists are still pioneering in this field, exploring the very fundamentals of sound.
One thing I particularly like about the music from this label is the amount of funkiness the artists manage to put into this extremely minimal form. The fact that it’s not only music for the brain, but very much for the body as well. This is also reflected in their live shows, which often makes use of really well-synchronized minimal visuals, creating a highly intensive synaesthetic experience.
Listen to three different examples of ‘the Raster Noton sound’ underneath: a personal favorite, Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda, who also does amazing installation work, Carsten Nicolai himself under his alias alva noto, and last but not least the three founding fathers in their joint group Signal, in a clip from an amazing live-performance at this year’s Transmediale festival in Berlin.
Ryoji Ikeda – data.matrix
alva noto – Uni Rip
Raster Noton will celebrate their first 15 years this friday at Berghain, Berlin’s techno temple per se, with live performances from Atom™, Vladislav Delay, and the main men; Bretschneider, Byetone and alva noto among others.
Discover more here: www.raster-noton.net
