Myxer, a user-driven media sharing website, has released its take on online music services, Myxer Social Radio.
The recently debuted service is offered in desktop and mobile versions, free of charge.
Eddy Vien from the website Radio Survivor recently penned a review, sharing his first impressions of the listening experience. His overall opinion was lackluster. “Myxer is not too bad, but there’s really nothing new or unique about it, because it is a hybrid between Pandora and Turntable.fm,” he wrote in the review.
Vien takes issue with Myxer’s approach to privacy, as users are required to login using their Facebook account, of which much personal information becomes the property of the company, used to “engage third parties.” This information includes your name, profile picture, unique identifiers and various data from your profile.
Vien balks at this “need” for information, stating that Pandora only requires an email address, and generates content based on a user’s gender, age and ZIP code.
As for the musical aspects of Myxer Social Radio, offerings are based on “rooms” that users enter based on genres such as “Pure Rock” or “Occupy Indie.” The social aspect comes from other users who are in the same room as you, as he was writing the review, Vien noted 10 other occupiers of the “Pure Rock” room.
Songs can be liked or disliked, like Pandora or Turntable.fm, and each room offers a chat option for interacting with fellow roommates.
Vien also noted performance issues, with songs being bypassed for the next song, only halfway through, without provocation. Some songs did not load, and the mobile version reportedly crashed “every two songs or so.” There are mobile versions for iPhone and Android devices.
Read the full review here.