Music search and discovery site Jango entered public beta today, several weeks after launching privately. Early assessments of Jango described a hybrid version of the crowded personalized radio landscape, dominated by stalwarts such as Last.fm and Pandora. View Mashable’s previous commentary here, which appears to already have guided the fledgling company. Kristen Nicole suggested incorporating a stand-alone player, which is supposedly in the works according to Jango CEO Daniel Kaufman.
So how else is Jango different from other services and what is their primary target audience? Unlike Pandora, which relies on a detailed classification system, Jango stations are generated from three components: similarity, popularity, and user ratings. These identifiers are in constant flux allowing Jango to recalculate the standard 10 song play-list each time musical preferences are altered in one of the three main components.
To build a dedicated user base, Jango is hoping to leverage a triad of simplicity, features (such as the stand-alone), and more social interaction. While Pandora and Last.fm are not mind-boggling and connect users quite well, the initial interface of Jango does have some interesting features. The “Add to Station” feature automatically prompts similar artists to include into a radio station. Similar to Last.fm, recommendations are controlled by an obscurity tool bar, which Jango labels as Popular Favorites, Happy Medium, and Wide Variety. This demonstrates a focus on customization from the outset.
If Jango, Pandora, or Last.fm are not satisfactory, visit this list for 50 more services to experiment with.
User comment: By: AngelosThe link did not work, but I am interested in historical mishaps such as naming your startup after a failed venture. Do you know of any repositories for information on failed startups outside of F&*cked Company? No word on the reasoning behind the name "Jango" - possibly a bastardization of D'Jango Reinhardt or a misspelling of Jingo?
User comment: By: » Show Me The Music! Jango Enters Public Beta[...] You can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...]
User comment: By: Josh MorganI read this and laughed as in 1997 one of clients was a company called Netbot that launched a shopping assistant called, you guess it, "Jango." Netbot was acquired by Excite soon after and Jango was flung onto the scrap heap of Silicon Valley. PS - here's a link to the original Jango release - http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Netbot+Announces+Powerful,+Simple+to+Use,+Net+Shopping+Tool%3B+Jango...-a019402033
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