Music fans, listen up! 8tracks (the self-proclaimed “social, curated alternative to Pandora”) is now available on Android.
For the unassociated, 8tracks is a massive collection of handcrafted playlists built, for the most part, by the music-obsessed. It’s one of those things that takes a bit of tinkering to wrap your head around… until suddenly, you find yourself 40 playlists deep with a monstrous collection of new tunes behind you. It’s the music lover’s music discovery engine.
This new Android app isn’t their first endeavor in mobile — in fact, the 8tracks iPhone app launched way back in April. With that said, this app isn’t just a quick port — it’s seemingly been rebuilt from the ground up with all of the mechanisms and design paradigms Android users would expect. In other words, it feels right at home on Android.
For those just diving into 8tracks (do it!), know that the service comes with some limitations: the same artist can only appear in any given mix twice, playback order is randomized after the first playthrough, and you can only skip a handful of tracks per day. When you’re willing to tune in and tune out, though, playlists from the likes of VICE, Pitch, Ghostly, Spin Magazine, and Resident Advisor should make you the hippest kid in Hippsville.
You can nab the free app from the Android Market right over here.
If you’ll excuse me, I have like 70,000 Adele/Jay-Z dubstep mashups to catch up on.