MUMBAI: At the MixRadio 6th Music Connects, MixRadio VP Jyrki Rosenberg enlightened the audience on a mobile application ‘Play Me’ for the new music recommendation engine MixRadio. The service personalises playlists and curates a mix aimed only at what users like based on the current playlists, artists that they listen to and artistes that their friends listen to.

However, the reach of this level of MixRadio’s personalisation is restricted because currently, the service is only available on smart-phones with Windows software. The Windows smart-phone consumption in India is substantial due to sales of Nokia Lumia phones, which come with the MixRadio app pre-installed. Rosenberg said that there are three types of MixRadio consumers via Windows phones: First are the people who buy Windows phones with the intention of having MixRadio, then there are those who start consuming MixRadio after buying, and lastly, there are those who are stuck with using Windows phones because it has MixRadio.

Talking of the relevance of MixRadio’s personalised mixes to India, Rosenberg said, “It was here in India where we realised that MixRadio’s music focus has moved from country to individual. In a country where there are many cultures and a variety of music genres, there are many who are extremely inquisitive about western music. So, it is only here in India that we have music of 20 different languages along with the internationally popular English music.”

The aim of this music personalisation was “to play the right song to the right person at the right time.” In order to get the right song, MixRadio has a music content catalogue that would take a user “three lifetimes to hear all of it.” However, Rosenberg also adds, “It is the usage of the music catalogue, and not size that matters.”

In addition to curated mixes and personalised playlists, MixRadio also plays music that you have on your smart-phone via, ‘My Music.’ Rosenberg said, “The consumption of ‘My Music’ is more here in India as compared to other countries. In countries like Finland, Brazil, US and UK, music streaming is on the rise. The level of music streaming is increasing, though at a slower rate, here in India.”

The acquisition of music for MixRadio is also an interesting topic that Rosenberg shed some light on. “Along with various music labels, we aim to make lesser known independent musicians and their music more popular using MixRadio, and to do that we have prepared easy-to-use web based tools,” added Rosenberg.