You don’t have to go through the tedious form-filling process that those older online radios welcomed their users with. You can start right away by logging in with your Twitter or Facebook account. Once you are in, you will be presented with a wall full of tracks trending across the network. The interface is quite a nice looking one with clear indications to the user about what it has to offer. As you click on any song thumbnail, it will start buffering and in time will start playing. Also the whole list (the Overall Trending for this one) will be added to the song playing queue. All you need to do now is sit back and enjoy the music. Hover over the title and you can browse through the trending tracks based on other choices.
Exploring Music
Choose the Explore tab from the left hand navigation, you will land onto the “Site of the day” section where the service promotes a site depending on popularity, freshness etc. Look out for the play button to tune in to the songs from the site.
Now notice the top navigation where other options are available to browse music on Ex.fm. The genres menu has all the common ones and also includes some less-used ones (dubstep, shoegaze etc) too.
Just like the featured website, you can extend your exploring with the featured album. Similarly, when you click on any song, the whole list (the featured album in this case) is added to the playlist. “Tastemakers” in true sense, are the people the site thinks has a good understanding of music. And if you wish to find what they refer, scroll down the list and follow the folks of your choice.
Monthly Mixtape again is a featured section showcasing a mix created by a notable Ex.fm user (probably someone who features in the Tastemakers list) . Check out the mix if you are too lazy to go and create your own playlist. “Latest loved” section displays a list of songs loved by users across the Ex.fm network.
A Player for Music blogs
If you are an webmaster and want your pageviews to be more musically pleasing, you can offer your visitors with embedded media player that plays the songs you loved or some randomly chosen by Ex.fm. The fact that the player has a plugin for WordPress (and support for Tumblr and Blogger) is even more satisfying. You have the options to customize the look and feel of the player to match your theme. There are badges to show off your ex.fm madness.
As I had already said, the service is quite visually pleasing. The streaming is seamless unless you have a really slow Internet connection. As the web interface enthralls you, the iPhone and Android Ex.fm apps will keep the music going even when you are on the go and the browser extensions just fill in the gap. Sharing being the new cool thing, you get one click sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Last.fm. Most of all, your music browsing experience is bound to get new dimensions. I know you are enjoying already, aren’t you? Put in your thoughts.
