Not exactly clear how these guys found me, but I got an email yesterday and clicked through. It's all together possible I saw something about it, submitted my email, and summarily forgot - as I do that often. Either way, glad I got the email.
As I found out, Shuffler.fm was developed by a bunch of guys in Amsterdam, through their company called tone.fm, an interactive media & entertainment agency focused on developing products and services for web & mobile. My kind of company... Looks like the site has been up and running for about a year or so, so I'm a bit late to the party. But as they say, better late than never. I've only started playing with Shuffler, but I've already started integrating it into my music listening/discovering routine.
The general concept: Shuffler.fm aggregates audio from thousands of music blogs and organizes by genres. The genres are essentially radio channels. When you click on a channel, you are directed to a blog post which streams one of the songs mentioned in that post. Whereas hype.fm integrates music, Shuffler adds the context by landing right on the post it came from. The music plays through their own player at the top of the screen. If you click through to the next track, the screen also moves to the next blog site the music is being hosted on. Or when the song ends, it does the same. It's all pretty smooth.
In addition to it being a great discovery engine, with great mixes, the site is integrated with Tumblr. If you decide you want to follow the blog you're on, just hit the + sign in the player and you're set. So while finding cool new music, I'm finding new blogs and growing my Tumblr follows. You can also tweet track, "like" via Facebook, add to Google+, StumbleUpon or email. And it's also integrated with Last.fm, so you can turn on scrobbling.
Another nice feature is the ability to play a favorite blog as a continuous mix and the ability to "fave" tracks - both features ex.fm already does really well. The fave feature is awesome - I use it so when I'm working, so I can quickly tag a track and then go back and listen to more of that artist when I have the time. Also Shuffler has a nice search engine to find blogs and/or artists. And the iPad app works pretty much the same as the site, a little more streamlined. All well integrated.
Shuffler is a cross between hype.fm, ex.fm, We Are Hunted and Flipboard.
The one big feature missing is the social component. I can follow a blog, but can't follow (or find) any friends who are doing the same. I assume if their user base grows, these features will be added.
One little bug.. I was listening to a track and decided to check out another genre from the pulldown menu and was taken back to the home page. But I hadn't psued the music and the music was still playing - yet the player is gone. Doesn't stay persistent on the home page. I had all these browsers open, and the music streaming through Sonos speakers, and couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Had to close all the shuffler.fm tabs and start again. Minor issue…
Overall, fun new toy.
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