Does anyone else find it really hard to jump out of your musical comfort zone? I’m one of those people that does listen to everything, mind, but I do have a cache of sounds that I typically enjoy—EDM, Hip-Hop, and New Wave are among them—and it’s tough to really break free from my habits and listen to other genres on a normal basis. Wonder, an app that allows for the discovery of new music, helps though.
Even though there isn’t a lot under the hood, I dig the minimal approach. You can simply flip through artists you find interesting (or go one by one, with a helpful numbered format), and then hone in on something you like by pressing the “more like this” option. From there another numbered list pops up, which provides similar sounds. Done.
Since it’s powered by Soundcloud, everything checks out from a stability standpoint (well, for the most part, outside of a few times where a track wouldn’t load and I’d have to manually look for it elsewhere online).
It’s one of the most highly used music streaming services for a reason—it performs consistently well and has a great sound quality to boot. Connecting it will also grant you more features, like “starring” songs—though you’ll need to fully grant wonder.fm access for that.
Note though that Wonder is indie-tinted, so after a while you will notice that a lot of it is skewed towards alt-rock, EDM, and essentially what is popular right now. That’s its Achilles heel, because I adore the pared down system compared to the overwhelming radio stations featured on streaming services like Spotify, which has become a monolithic bombardment of information at this point. So if you’re more interested in discovering new music than listening to your old school faves, Wonder is an app to check out.
Wonder is an iOS app that can be downloaded for free in the iTunes App Store.