I’m an avid music consumer, but lately I’ve been in a bit of an exploration. I find myself going back to the same old artists and albums I’ve been listening to for the past few years. While this realization has weighed heavily on me in the weeks following New Year’s – when everyone seems to be rebranding themselves and trying something new –– In apparently divine intervention, I found him Article from TechCrunch Documentation of a new app called Smores designed to help users find new music with it Spotify. So I tried it.
I downloaded the app from the App Store on my iPhone and the Smores interface option greeted my Spotify account. The instructions for playing Smores were alarmingly simple: swipe to go to the next song, hit the flip button to add the song to your Spotify library, and/or tap to add a song to a Spotify playlist.
The first song I was greeted with was a song called “Mercy” by Julius, and I’ll be honest, it was definitely something I’d listen to. I sat listening to the song to decide whether or not to add it to my Spotify until the app automatically switched to Betty Who’s “BLOW OUT MY CANDLE,” an ’80s-inspired ballad I’d totally consume.
After some experimentation, I’ve found that you can listen to a 30-second snippet of a seemingly random part of a song before the app automatically skips to the next one. This duration can be lengthened or shortened in the app’s settings, which feature other customization options where users can set their feed to display a specific BPM, artists with a certain number of followers, or a specific set of years when the music was released.
Smores also lets you organize the feed it presents to you by choosing a genre, which the app says is “this month’s top genre.” Smores uses the Spotify API, so these types have the same weird names that might appear in a Spotify wrapped. This integration is also how songs are seamlessly added to your Spotify library and playlists, as well as how Smores’ AI works with something the first time you open the app. Smores also creates a “Smores Finds 🔥” playlist that includes only the songs you’ve liked in the app.
I would best describe the app’s interface as TikTok-Meet-Tinder-Meet-Spotify: a vertical-based feed (TikTok) that forces you to decide a yes or no (Tinder) with a cover photo, a heart button, and clearly displaying the name of the artist and song to you (Spotify ). Smores developers Alex Ruber and Andrei Patrou told TechCrunch in an email:
We love discovering new music, but we were stuck in our own recommendation bubbles and it took a long time to sift through the sheer volume of new music coming out. At the same time, we had a hunch: You only need to listen to the “right” snippet of a song to see if you like it or not: Shazam’s popularity suggests that’s the case.
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The app builds upon the idea of AI in music consumption. Spotify, for example, uses artificial intelligence to recommend you music as well as build playlists like Daily Mix, which refreshes every morning with songs Spotify thinks you will like. The problem with Spotify is that its just not particularly easy to discover new music unless you want to comb through dozens of playlists to (maybe) find a song you’ll like.
While you can search for new music on Spotify and feed the platform’s AI information on your listening habits, Smores makes it easier to stumble upon that new music with their feed. I don’t see myself sitting down and using Smores to actively seek new music, but I do myself opening the app while I’m walking to work or riding the bus and passively listening for something I might enjoy.