Raditaz is now officially live, offering a free streaming music service that lets listeners add location and other contextual tags to their customized listening experience.
When a user creates a personal station, Raditaz automatically tags it with the GPS coordinates of where the user happens to be. It then appears on the service’s “map view” and its “explore” page where other listeners can choose to play it. Professionally created stations are also available.
Users also can add other, more subjective types of tags to their stations. As an example, Raditaz suggests a playlist could be tagged #running #beach for a station the user created for that scenario. Other ideas quickly come to mind. How about #dogwalking #morning? Or #trafficjam, for the daily commute?
Just as they can with location information, users can browse based on these personal tags. They also can see what’s trending among other listeners.
Raditaz is free and allows users to skip as many songs as they want to. Stations are generated using The Echo Nest technology,and Raditaz licenses its music from MediaNet so it has a library of about 14 million songs.
The service is supported by geographically relevant display and audio advertising. Raditaz, which is based in Connecticut, reports having raised $3 million from angel investors to date.
Raditaz has been in beta since May 2011. Digging into the trivia files reveals that in its earlier incarnations Raditaz was known as CompletePlaylists and then as GetPlaylists.
“FM radio just doesn’t cut it anymore – our preference for making music personal has changed the way we find and listen to music,” said Tom Brophy, founder and chief executive officer, Raditaz. “In the new music world where music is more about identity than opinion, we bring personality to the music people love to listen to the most, creating a whole new music experience, and opening the door for a powerful new revenue model for advertisers.”
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