The Echo Nest Provides Music Intelligence for Intel’s New Spotify App, Sifter

June 7 4:34pm

Spotify’s branded apps rolled out today, and The Echo Nest is the brains behind the very first one.

We power the new Sifter presented by IntelⓇ, which millions of users of Spotify’s desktop client (free or paid) can install via sifter.fm, or from the Spotify App Finder.

Intel provides the branding for this innovative convergence of brand sponsorship and freemium music; The Brigade designed it; and The Echo Nest delivers the powerful musical data engine that lets Sifter conjure an excellent listening experience for each user, based on whatever they’re listening — or on any other artist or song they want to delve into.

Spotify plans on launching a series of branded apps, and we’re pleased to be involved with the first. This marks another extension of our ongoing relationship with Spotify, which uses The Echo Nest for its own Spotify Radio, and is a partner in our Rosetta Stone platform.

We think Sifter is a great way to make your way through Spotify’s 16 million-plus songs, whether for instant-gratification listening when you just want to hear something you like, or as an efficient way to build your collection and share your taste. Any Sifter collection can be saved as a playlist; then, as with any other playlist, you can edit it further to reflect your own taste and share or archive it to your collection.

To use Sifter, simply listen to whatever you want in Spotify, then click the Sifter app in the Spotify menu on the left side of the screen. You’ll see songs or artists that go along with that song, as depicted in the screenshot above. Or, you can just fire up Sifter and search for any song or artist.

Sifter doesn’t make you use Facebook, but it adds a neat feature if you do. Music fans who choose to integrate Sifter with Facebook can see which of their friends have listened to any of the songs displayed on any screen in the Sifter Spotify app.

Now, you will finally know who else celebrates the catalogs of Hall & Oates, Beach House, Skrillex, or any other band you might be into.

You can try Sifter here.