You’re staying in all night to wait out a gnarly storm, curled up on the couch reading a favorite book by candlelight. Naturally, in this kind of a situation, many of us gravitate toward soft, soothing melodies that contrast well with the torrential chaos outside (or maybe you’d look for a little death metal in such a case — everyone’s entitled to their own taste). But now — through a collaboration between Songza and the Weather Channel — you may not have to sift through your library to find that perfect song to complement whatever Mother Nature is throwing at you. Songza will find it for you.
Songza (which has evolved steadily over the years) and the Weather Company (the parent company of the Weather Channel) announced today a new intriguing partnership that aims to bring another data-driven facet to Songza’s increasingly comprehensive system. Songza algorithmically predicts the “context,” or state of mind, that a user is in and, as a result, what kind of music would do the best job of improving it. Before today’s announcement, Songza’s data-based predictions drew context indicators from things like the current day, time, device type, location and past behavior. Now, by leveraging data from the Weather Channel, Songza has even more context indicators to throw into their thorough system. And it’s not as simple or cliché as just cranking pop music in the sunlight and blasting metal in a hailstorm, either.
According to the press release, “the partnership will also allow Songza to understand and accumulate subconscious changes to people’s routines that are driven by relative changes in temperature, precipitation and more.”
For example, after using Songza every morning during your daily bicycle/bus/train commute, the service might eventually figure out the average time you walk out the door. So say you leave a little later than usual and you have to trek through a downpour to get to work: Songza should be able to recognize that you’re not only in a rush (compared with its saved data on your average listening habits), but you’re also sprinting against a deluge to make your bus on time. And finally, since Songza has also musically gotten to know you over time, it will know that such a situation requires The Sex Pistols — not LeAnn Rimes. Thank heavens.
To see what kind of tunes Songza will find for the last remnants of your SADD, you can give this new element a try over at Songza right now.
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