If you are a Linux user, you can now discover new music using the MyStrands Amarok plug-in.

Capture your playcounts, build your music profile and share your tastes with others.

This will allow you to go to MyStrands and get instant song, album and artist recommendations, whenever you want. Also, you can have control over the music recommendations that you get by adjusting the popularity of the recommended songs, defining specific genres or decades, or even getting recommendations based on your listening habits over the course of the day, the week, the month or more.

If you don’t want to see a song, album or artist ever recommended again (because you don’t like it or you already know it) you can send it to the Exile list and it will vanish forever.

Now you have more control to discover more music. Welcome!

Interacting with partyStrands (download here) just got much easier!

Before you get to the party:

1. Link your phone number with your MyStrands account. To do so, go to Preferences in www.MyStrands.com, then “Change my cellphone information” and update your mobile phone number.

2. Then, send the following message to 81890 in the USA (or 5331 in Spain):

LINK YourMyStrandsAccount

3. You will get a return message. Reply with “Y” to opt-in to partyStrands, and you are ready to go.

You only need to do this once for each mobile phone.

When you arrive at a party:

1. Let us know where you are by sending a message with the venue or party name to 81890.

2. You then have several options:

• Send a text message: Type your message, send it to 81890, and it will appear on the partyStrands display screen.
• Add an artist: Type A name_of_the_artist
• Vote: Type V a , b, or c

Of course, you can always interact through the mobile web, free and easy.

Enjoy!

The MyStrands development team has some news for us today. Version 0.8.3.002 of MyStrands for Windows is here, and it includes new functionalities in partyStrands. Download it here.

What’s new?

• A partyStrands set-up wizard that allows party hosts to set default values for parties.
• A new tab on the host interface that allows party hosts to adjust the frequency of advertisements.
• A new protocol that downloads all advertisements from the MyStrands servers.
• Updated instruction screens on the party display.
• New SMS syntax…that is for another post.

Enjoy!

• Update (03/19/07): Check out some of the feedback received so far.

• Update 2 (04/18/07): MyStrands Social Player has been awarded the Orange Innovation Award! See more here.

MyStrands Social Player is here! It is a music player for mobile devices (Symbian Series 60, 3rd edition) with two main characteristics: it is a music discovery tool and a strong community builder. Watch the video then try it yourself.

It was Symbian signed yesterday for general release. This is version 2.6 of MyStrands for Symbian.

As a music discovery tool, it gives you real-time recommendations of songs that are similar to your currently-playing song, you can stream 30” clips of the recommended songs to your device, and learn more about them on our mobile website. There are more that six million tracks waiting to be discovered.

The MyStrands Social Player has two community features: first, it helps you discover new people by telling you who else in the community is currently listening to the same song. Then, you can view that person’s profile (unless it has been set as private) and check his listening history. Maybe you’ll make a new friend!

MyStrands Social Player also helps you keep in contact with your friends, it tells you what they are listening to at every moment, and it shows you their play history (from their phones or computers). You’ll be able to interact with them and discover music through them.

There is still more. MyStrands Social Player allows you to build playlists on the go, and to tag your music and discover music through tags. The player also helps you build your musical profile. You can visit your personal page at http://MyStrands.com or http://m.MyStrands.com and see your listening history.

All our services are integrated through our public APIs (OpenStrands). Whatever you do in our website, MyStrands for Mac, for PC, for Windows Mobile, for Symbian or patyStrands, is fully integrated: there is no need to add your friends again in your mobile, no need to re-tag music, to build your music profile once again. Your one MyStrands account is good for all these services.

By the way, we will be demoing the MyStrands Social Player during CTIA in Orlando. If you are attending please let us know.

Enjoy!

You have tons of songs in your PC but a limited space in your mobile. How to choose the best music for the phone? You can browse through all those gigas and select the music yourself, or you can have MyStrands help you.

The Auto Fill function in MyStrands for PC uses your MyStrands listening history to automatically fill your device with music from your library, music that you have been listening to lately. If you want more control over the fill process, use MyStrands’ music Auto Fill to move music based on tags or playlists to your mobile device.

The Auto Fill function works with Windows Mobile, and soon with Symbian. It also works with any portable music player that can be connected as a drive over USB. Of course, this is compatible with iTunes, WMP and Winamp.

Enjoy!

We have linked our social music recommendations with Wikipedia facts. Check it out in our Labs. It is easy, fun and informative.

Sure, it’s fine to say, “if you like Green Day then you’ll like Blink-182″, but why stop there when we can bring that connection to life by tapping into Wikipedia’s vast storehouse of information! (In 2002, Blink-182 co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour with Green Day, here).

Are you a fan of Jimi Hendrix? Did you know, for example, that “After a number of European club appearances, word of Hendrix spread through the London music community. His showmanship and virtuosity made instant fans of reigning guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, as well as members of The Beatles and The Who, whose managers signed Hendrix to The Who’s record label, Track Records” (here).

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And by the way, if you’re a developer interested in doing cool stuff like this, you should know that this feature is implemented using OpenStrands, the MyStrands Public API. OpenStrands is a set of web services for developers interested in adding MyStrands functionality to their applications.

MyStrands.com has been revamped with new features for music lovers and partygoers in the mobile, on-line and physical worlds. What’s New covers it all!

All three worlds, mobile, on-line and physical are seamlessly integrated at www.MyStrands.com and all the information (music, people, photos, text messages, and more) generated through any of these 3 worlds can be accessed real time via computer or mobile phone. Why limit yourself to your home computer when all the fun is out there and available on-the-go?

The new MyStrands includes a much-awaited personal version of partyStrands (more here), which allows everyone to host a partyStrands-enabled party at home or other social events; and new navigation tabs centered on Music, People and Parties.

New mobile solutions
MyStrands for Symbian is here, your one-stop mobile music player, playlist builder and music recommender. It helps you find and interact with partyStrands parties at bars, let’s you see what your friends are listening to and helps you organize and discover new music through recommendations, tags and the community.

All this is also available through the new MyStrands mobile web portal and MyStrands for Windows Mobile.

New embeddable flash music charts, for Myspace, Blogger and LiveJournal. Tell everyone what you are listening to, on your computer, cell phone or iPod.

New personalized flash indie radio. This radio has no interaction restrictions as other commercial content radios do (you can skip back and forth as many times as you want, rate and track your ratings, tag songs, and download them if the artist permits it).

2.5 million commercial full-length songs to listen to for free. You can play whole albums, and soon artists and other users’ playlists, up to three times per song, thanks to Napster (registration required at Napster.com, only valid in the USA).

New MyStrands with taskbar and partyStrands
Now with easy access from the taskbar, MyStrands allows you to get instant recommendations, create playlists on the fly, tag your music, connect with your friends and throw some great parties with partyStrands. MyStrands is available for Mac and PC and now supports Windows Media Player 11 and WinAmp.

And MyStrands now comes with a personal version of partyStrands and allows you to host parties right off your PC; if you’re not in the partying mood, partyStrands becomes a personal DJ playing your and your friends favorite hits. More here.

Enjoy!