Get ready for musical adventure.
Musicovery (www.musicovery.com) is more interactive than most pureplay stations. On the website, there is not a Play button to be seen. Instead, a colorful mood map responds to mouseovers as you roll across it from Energetic to Calm, and from Dark to Positive. Music streams out instantly with each cursor position on a dot. Big dots indicate popularity among other users. Click on a dot to lock in that stream and throw the interface onto a new page. On that screen you can see upcoming songs in the playlist (pluck out any you don’t want), and refine the stream by genre and decade.
All this sounds complicated, and it does require a minute or two of playing around to get the hang of the system. Your reward? The scope and quality of music discovery is startling and refreshing. Unlike Spotify, Rhapsody, Slacker, Rdio, and other music jukeboxes which strive to closely match your taste, Musicovery stretches your boundaries. We challenge anyone to spend 30 minutes on this site and not have an ear-opening experience. If the stream goes off the rails, just roll the mouse over the dots and start a new one.
Variety and unexpectedness are good on a Monday. The broad range of Musicovery might serve you Dave Brubeck followed by DJKrush, or Kid Cudi followed by Stan Lafferriere. An international flavor seasons everything. You can weed out genres during the stream by clicking color-coded buttons, shaping the experience without inhibiting its adventurousness.
RAIN tested the Musicovery mobile app (Android), and found it based on the same design, but less elegant. This unusual pureplay works best on the desktop with a mouse.