the Informer

Music has forever been an outlet for us to express ourselves in an almost unexplainable way. We classify it by genre, by era and by band, but now we have a way to define our music a little differently: by mood.

Stereomood is a free “emotional internet radio” that allows users to choose a playlist based on their mood.

Developed in 2007 in Milan, Italy, by Giovanni Ferron, in an attempt to provide his friend and fellow Stereomood developer Maurizio Pratici with an online tool to listen to and share new music from international music blogs.

It took about a year for the project to get off the ground, and in that time the website’s developers (Giovanni Ferron, Daniele Novaga, Maurizio Pratici, Eleonora Vivani and Silvia Pianelli) struggled with concepts and found themselves asking a lot of questions about how to arrange music in a unique but useful way, until one final question ended the debate.
Why not arrange our music files according to our moods or activities?

And thus, Stereomood was born. We no longer have to search through endless lists of songs to find the perfect music for sleepy Sundays or for when you and your partner are feeling frisky.

Now it’s as easy as going online and choosing the mood you’re in – or the mood you want to be in – and clicking play. Playlists range from about 20 minutes to about an hour, and include themes like “relax,” “on my feet,” “dinner with friends,” “morning” and “high.” With dozens of tagged lists to choose from, there’s no way to be disappointed with Stereomood’s options.

Although the site is still in beta, its influence on the way music is classified will undoubtedly be great. Now that playlists are so prevalent in music, should artists be concerned for the future of the classic album structure? Well, yes, they should, actually.

The way that people are listening to music is evolving, plain and simple. Although we love our full-length albums, it’s the singles that are still getting our playtime.

We no longer have to buy entire albums to hear our favorite songs; we can pick and choose which songs we want to purchase. So what should artists do to keep our attention?

Embracing this new idea is the first step to a successful transition into the playlist world, because fighting the evolution will only harm their careers.

The next step is to seek out collaboration opportunities. Bands and artists often do album splits, where two or more artists share the same album (not to be confused with a compilation, which is essentially a playlist).

It may be beneficial to musicians to keep their releases short and sweet. Instead of releasing one full-length album each year or two, why not have more frequent, collaborative releases with less tracks from each artist? That way, listeners will stay attentive and may even learn about new artists.

So what’s next for the music revolution? Who will come up with the next idea to change the way we seek out artists, songs or genres?

The popularity of playlists will definitely spike as more and more music enthusiasts opt to pick and choose which songs they want to purchase and it’s up to the artists to convince them to stick around for full-lengths.

Stereomood’s innovative presentation of music via moods and activities is an awesome example of musical evolution, and music connoisseurs are eagerly looking towards the future of listening.