Few of us have heard of — let alone used — MixRadio, the free music streaming service developed by Nokia and recently bought by Japan-based messaging service LINE. It’s no surprise why — the ad-free platform was previously only accessible via Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Music lovers who’re tired of Spotify, however, can now rejoice: MixRadio is finally making itself available on Android and iOS. The music streaming service, which boasts a playlist of 35 million tracks, can now be conveniently downloaded via Google Play and the Apple App Store. In addition to that, the company has also announced its tie-up with Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC, meaning that HTC users will now see MixRadio music updates appear along with news updates and social media notifications on their BlinkFeed.
A bit of background for those unfamiliar with MixRadio: the music streaming platform, launched by Nokia in 2007, purportedly sees “millions of users” across the 31 countries it operates in. MixRadio prides itself on its simplicity of usage and its focus on personalisation, with a unique feature known as MyMix that “learns” what users like and tailors the tracks played to their tastes.
While MixRadio may be overshadowed by more illustrious competitors like Spotify and Deezer at the moment, don’t be too quick to discount the music platform as yet. For one, through its recent acquisition by LINE, MixRadio is in prime position to unleash its streaming services onto the messaging platform’s 181 million monthly active users. That’s not even taking into consideration the potential traction it might gain via HTC, which in the first quarter of 2015 reported a quarterly revenue of NTS41.5 billion.
In fact, there almost seems to be no reason why MixRadio, with its commercial-free, highly personalised, subscription-less services, won’t be adopted by more users. One major advantage that MixRadio offers might be that even non-premium users can listen to playlists while offline — a handy feature for those always on the move, and now even more so with the launch of the brand on Android and iOS.
And with the sporadic troubles that have been hitting some music streaming sites — most recently, Spotify and Apple made headlines for Apple’s attempts to push out Spotify’s free tiers — it might be worthwhile checking out an ambitious, not quite new kid on the block.
