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Ready-Made Workout Playlists: Music Apps You’ll Love

songza

2. Songza

Songza was introduced to me by some young, hip friends as the younger, hipper sister of Pandora, and that description is pretty right on. Like Pandora, it’s available online and on mobile devices and offers a few ways to select your station. First, there’s the music concierge, which changes what types of music it recommends based on the day and time. Like, right now, as I’m writing this, I can choose: Keeping Calm and Mellow, College Life, Working to a Beat and more, and each of those will lead me to five options for stations that fit the bill.

You can also select stations based on activity (lounging in a cool hotel, going on a bike ride), genre and mood (celebratory, introspective), and once you’ve selected a station, you can like, dislike or skip songs, like with Pandora. And, if that’s not enough, you can search for an artist in order to bring up playlists that include that artist.

Pros: Songza offers some really great variety, especially when it comes to discovering new music. I mean, there are four different types of indie stations alone, not to mention a whole slew of international options. And the concierge has gotten me to check out some stations I never would’ve gravitated to on my own. I mean, who knew I’d like French pop from the 60s so much?

Cons: It’s sometimes hard to find quite the right station at the start since the descriptions aren’t always terribly helpful and, other than showing a few images of album covers indicative of the style of music, artists and songs aren’t listed for you to peruse. Also, while it doesn’t play ads throughout your playlist, it does play a short video ad at the beginning of most. And some of the playlists get a bit repetitive — I’ve heard SUPERMODEL: (You Better Work) by RuPaul about a million times in the last two months (although don’t take that as a real complaint!).

Cost: The basic version is free, and you can upgrade to Club Songza for 99 cents a week … although, to be honest? I couldn’t even find where to do it, and I don’t have an issue with the minimal ads they play since it doesn’t interrupt the songs. So mostly I’m just gonna say it’s free.

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