MeeMix Internet radio – a social music site that learns

Last night I saw an ad for MeeMix while on Facebook. The ad was engaging enough to get me to click it, but that’s usually where the engagement stops. Not so in the case of MeeMix, an online social radio site. You are immediately thrown into the application. It asks you to enter a song name (I must admit, it almost lost me here as it was not finding any of my first songs) and then either starts playing it or suggests a list of possibilities.

So many advertisements fail to engage a user, you finally get someone to click your ad only to lose them five seconds later. The method MeeMix has used is to give you a taste of the application and then ask you to sign up after you have invested time and effort into the site. A list apart has a great article on this technique called Sign Up Forms Must Die.

The great thing about MeeMix is how the site finds music you like. This is supposedly what separates it from other online music sites, but to be honest I haven’t really tried many other services.

I still haven’t fully figured out all the ins and outs of MeeMix, but since I’ve started using it I now have some Mee Stations on the left hand side. These play different genres of music. Below that I have some little icons that allow me to get information on the song, share what I’m listening to with friends and embed the tunes on a web site. Then there is the Mood Control. This is one of the coolest features I think. There are three sliders, Surprize me, Pulse, and Atmosphere.

• The Surprize me slider will give you different music then you may be expecting from your current settings or favourites. As you slide it further, the music will become more and more different from what you are currently listening too.
• Pulse is how fast or heavy the music is, when slide to the left it’s more relaxing, while the right is more party time as they put it.
• Atmosphere sets how light or dark the music is. Dark = sweet and melancholy, while light = cheerful weather.

MeeMix has a main window the album cover of what you are currently listening too with other options. You can skip back over the list of songs you have listened to also. You can also watch video here which is taken from YouTube. Game mode takes random songs and gives you 30 seconds to guess what it is.

You will find more controls at the bottom of the main window. The most important one is do you like this tune? If you slide the slider all the way to the Not section it will automatically skip that song. Slide it all the way to the Hot section and it will remember that you like this song. Supposedly as you do this MeeMix will learn the kind of music you like and don’t like.

Based on sophisticated statistical analyses, we have built an algorithm that mimics the way neurons work in the human brain, when it comes to preference and taste.

The only real flaw I can see with MeeMix that can be annoying and confusing is its use of pop-ups. First you must allow the popup to be initiated, at least in Firefox and then it will open in another tab. This behaviour will vary depending on the browser. You will then find yourself clicking on things in the player that might target the other window. At first I thought some links and buttons just weren’t working, but they were actually targeting my other window. I hope they will refine the interface with time and leave the pop-ups behind. For the most part you only really need the player window open anyway.

MeeMix also has links to some of the major social media sites out there, so you can share and post to your friends. So far I like the site, and in a web with a new social site every week that’s saying a lot. Will it catch on or even hold my attention? Will it hold yours? Only time will tell.